Here’s Lizzie, our Christmas kitten. She has always loved Christmas. She likes to lay under the tree when the lights are on. When she is younger she used to climb up into the tree and so we had to perform a “Catectomy” pulling out of the tree.
And Kodi the Pomeranian. He loves to play.
He loves my wife. This is what he does when she leaves the house for any reason.
He loves walking so we do that a lot.
I’m linking with Saturday’s Critters
Here’s is the almost Snow Moon from my back yard. I usually take it in the front yard but our neighbors across the street had some sort of ruckus going on that sounded like I needed to avoid. I think it is pretty much the same as the front yard offered at a lot lower sound level.
I went on a walk in a city park here. I love the trees against the blue sky.
More blue sky! We are supposed to have storms tomorrow (Thursday) and cold weather so be thinking about us.
And I finished another online jigsaw puzzle. I’m loving this relaxation induced anxiety. All this stuff in Canada, and the Ukraine, and life in general, just rolls away while working jigsaw puzzles. Actually, the concerns don’t go away, I just escape having to worry about them for a while.
I hope everybody is having a good week. I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Please join in!!
I went on a walk around Tulsa’s Lafortune Park today this cool, windy, overcast day. And found some graffiti. I don’t anybody minds this kind of graffiti.
It looks like somebody’s little brother or sister did some of their own.
Found some reflections in a pond.
Somebody is missing a shoe? Is it one of the Legends?
I love all the apps that link to my running watch. Sorry.
And just before my walk I was at a shopping center admiring the blooms and finding a geocache.
Earlier I was checking out the daffodils at Woodward Park. They are up and very pretty. They need sun to bring out the full brilliance though.
Even earlier than that, Lizzie the kitten was making friends with the Easter Bunny.
Yesterday I hauled Logan back to his college. We’ll see him in a couple weeks.
I hope everybody is doing well this week!! I’m linking with Our World Tuesday.
As my knee is getting stronger I am back to walking around downtown like I used to only not quite as far. Tuesday I strolled to the east side and checked out the progress on a new building. I swear they have been building this thing for a long time.
I kind of like its modern design with steel beams, lots of glass, balconies, and geometric theme. It is some sort of technology company I think and it looks almost ready to move in. Sorry for the dull pics. It was very overcast.
I posted this photo on Instagram. It is the “Urban” filter on the Prisma app. I love prisma. Maybe I love it too much.
What have you been up to lately?
On Sunday, son Logan and I went for a walk on Tulsa’s Turkey Mountain. I had run a race the day before so I just wanted so get out and stretch my legs a little bit. Something called a “recovery walk” or a “recovery run” except I was not running.
Turkey Mountain has a few double track miles of trails but most of it is single track. Once we got a quarter mile away from the parking lot, we had the place to ourselves.
The air was just barely warm, and dry, and the skies were deep blue.
The just barely changed leaves were almost fluorescent with the sun shining through them.
The grasses are just now turning color.
Here is a track of our journey. We stayed on the “Snake Trail” not because of snakes but because the trail folds back on itself.
I’m running a 25K race this coming weekend on Turkey Mountain, the TurkeynTaturs 25K. We’ll be running the Snake Trail and just about all the other trails on Turkey Mountain as well. I’lve pretty much run them all. I plan on taking my time and trotting the non-rocky flats and downhill segments and walking through the rocks and uphills.
This is a cumulative “heat map” showing all the trails I had run as of several months ago. As you can see I run a lot on Turkey Mountain. I love it and the race Saturday will be a tour of all of it.
Wish me luck!! It will be the longest race that I have run since 1997 when I ran the Madison Marathon in Wisconsin.
I’m linking with Skywatch Friday
Saturday morning I dropped the kid off at his Improv class and I drove to Turkey Mountain and hobbled around a bit. I say hobbled because for about a month now running has been very painful and I can’t hardly go up or down stairs. That is frustrating because I generally take stairs when I can and always walk up and down escalators. Now, walking up is painful but doable, walking down is out of the question. Things are getting better but not quick enough to suit me. I know patience is required so I am walking a lot and doing the elliptical machine thing. On Wednesday nights I run very short distances in between long walking interludes. So anyway back to Turkey Mountain. I have found almost all the non-micro sized geocaches there so I went for a couple I hadn’t found yet. The first one was close to a homeless camp that now looks abandoned. (It sure is a mess!!!!) This cache was easy to find. See up in the tree?
I read the description and guess what, climbing apparatus is required. While I am not doing it at all climbing gear or not. Unfortunately I can’t log it unless I sign the log inside. No partial credit allowed. Oh well. I was glad to find it. The next time we have a clean up on Turkey Mountain we’ll need to clean up the dude’s camp. Plus there is another one, that may be occupied, about a hundred yards north. It needs to go as well.
The next cache I found, or didn’t find, was also up in a tree. And this one, maybe, just maybe? But no, it is on a steep slope and remote and if I slipped or fell I would be in a world of hurt especially by myself. I could get this one with a ladder. I have a light portable ladder that I have packed into woods to retrieve caches safely and this might be one of them. Later.
I wandered around some more and found this. It is a bicycle jump across a ravine. I love the “Caution Gap” signs. They are probably needed because as you can see if you are on this side and tearing down the hill on your bicycle you are not going to see that it is not a bridge it is a jump. How does one do this for the first time? I guess you start out by not being as chicken as I am. You can also see that the structure has more problems than the gap. The first few boards are missing. See that bypass off to the right with the small bridge. That is more my speed.
I have yet to take my bicycle to Turkey Mountain. I have seen some bicyclists do incredible things. Like bend their wheels out of round or their frames and they have to carry their bikes two miles to the parking lot. I have also seen other guys go up and down hillsides that I thought were pretty much vertical. One day I saw a couple of mountain unicyclers tearing down the hill on the knobby tired unicycles. They are long poles they were using like skiers use ski poles but still, it was amazing.
Anyway, I had a great walk out in the woods on a beautiful chilly breezy, sunny January day. So, mission accomplished.
My old gym went out of business a few months ago. And so I rejoined a gym that I used to belong to until seven years ago. The gym is run by a Methodist church and just like a Methodist Church they still had me on their files and gave me my original member number back. When members show up you have to fill out the log, name, member number, time, and planned activity. We Methodists are fiends for documentation;
Anyways its about a 3/4 mile walk from the office. I have noticed the past couple months that our homeless people are increasingly sitting down and laying down on the sidewalks. Just the left of the photo above there was a guy sitting down on the sidewalk blocking everything but about a foot wide strip of concrete. I walked right past him and he asked me how I was doing, Great! I said, and you? He was doing great also. I felt like saying, then get your butt off the sidewalk dude.
So what is up with sprawling on the sidewalks?
Hey I crossed the street and come to Cathedral Square which is actually a City of Tulsa park. I love the fountain.
And it has the fanciest wrought iron benches in town.
And I came to my favorite tree. Sometimes I feel as old as it looks.
So, what did you do today?
Last Saturday it was hot!! We decided we would go swimming at my MIL’s Nana’s houe. I decided that I needed to walk there. She lives about six miles away and this was my third trip on foot over the years. The previous times I ran, this time I walked because it was hot, not that there is much difference in speed between my walking and running. I can say that, you can’t.
I passed out neighborhood information board. We have lived here sixteen years and I have never seen any information posted there. I have always wanted to hide a geocache up under the roof of the thing but I would have to get permission from our neighborhood council and I hate dealing with those people. Why, well we had one smart ass attorney resident say that we shouldn’t allow people to store chemicals in their garages. Oh, okay, what about the oil and gasoline in your car dummy? Another guy, a retired Army Corps of Engineers guy complaining about an often damaged fence across a creek said that we could fix it once and for all for $50,000. Oh okay, you giving us the money dude? Somebody else wanted to ban residents from renting their homes. Oh okay… Anyway trying to get permission would be impossible.
We have a nice little duck/swan pond in our neighborhood. I like it a lot.
Out on 81st street and going by Meadowbrook Country Club. Nice place.
On past our local Starbucks. I am addicted to their new Cold Brew iced coffee. Not today, too hot and too far to go.
On past Tulsa Community College. This is where son Logan will be going to college in a couple weeks. I said a prayer for the guy.
The Sheriff’s Department put up this spedometer right near the college. I have never registered on it. I have tried waiting for a car going by at a high rate of speed so I could claim that same speed. Hasn’t happened yet.
The trail gets really intricate and interesting. That is why I don’t mind walking or running to see Nana, the trail is almost four miles out of the six. Lots nicer than walking the streets.
A brand new medical building with a big welcome sign. I had to do some checking on it. It is a new building for an outfit that does colonoscopies. Probably dozens per day. I had one a few years ago but I couldn’t bring myself to write a blog post about it. Much too personal. But there were nice things also. I read the night before the procedure that beer was allowed so I had a couple of Fat Tires. The doctor laughed the next day. He said that was allowed but hardly anybody had ever admitted to it. Plus the heavy heated quilt the day of the procedure was very nice. And then the weird way your memory goes backward when you come to in the recovery room. All in all something I dreaded for no reason.
And then this lady running wierding my out. She passed my a couple times. Hmm. Should I have been concerned?
And then by the highway hill where runners have worn trails in the side to do hill repeats. Did I do a hill repeat?
Well, I went up once, but didn’t go up twice. So that is half of hill repeat right. Meanwhile the lady runner passed me again, not on the hill though.
And then under the Creek Turnpike.
Yep, I do PokemonGo and I captured a couple. I looked, and didn’t find a geocache also. Don’t get all Luddite on me on me for Pokemon Go.
And here is Nana’s house, about 6 and a quarter miles and over two hours later. I love the Angel that she keeps on her front porch, and the beer that she lets me keep in her beerator in her garage, and she has a great pool. Plus it is a treat to visit with her.
I assure you that our buildings in Tulsa do not lean to the left.
I’m one of those guys who has to get outside for at least a little bit every day regardless of the weather. So many of my coworkers over the years just stay inside, and surf the net or work or whatever. I couldn’t stand that. I have to get out. Over the course of a month or so I tramp all over downtown. I always take my camera.
The old Sun Pipeline Building.
I’m not satisfied with just one photo of something and then I’m done. Nope, there always different sides to things. The weather is different. The surroundings are different. I’m always amazed how much things change.
I like to visit old sights. These windows for instance. If I wont the lottery, which I won’t because I won’t spend the money on a ticket, but if I did. I would have bought this former AT&T building and put in a room with big comfy couches right under these windows. I don’t have to worry about it now. A church bought the building. I hope that these windows are put to good use. I’ll keep you posted;.
Here is a recurring mystery. This little lookout has been here for years. What is it for? Guarding and empty parking lot? Perhaps. I’d like to have a little look out, especially with air conditiooning. Wouldn’t you?
And old vintage gas station now an Avis dealer. I love old buildings put to good use.
I find remnants of Tulsa being the “Oil Capital of the World” such as this divider of some sort made out of oil well casing pipe.
And I found where somebody has started up a lending library of sorts in the East Village area.
What about you? Do you like to explore, tell me about it.