Friday, October 31, 2008

Today we voted

We voted early today. We had to go to the Election Board offices on North Denver Ave. Lots and lots of people were there to vote. It took us 45 minutes from beginning to end.

I had my portable CD player with me and listened to the beginning of lecture 3 by McWhorter. I voted a straight Democratic ticket in all elections.

After we left we went to the Fitness Center at TCC. There we walked for two miles, and I listen to the reminder of lecture 3 and all of lecture 4. We then returned home.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

I just returned home from Central Library where our Reading Shakespeare Aloud workshop got together for our 7th session. There are just two more sessions to go until the end. Tonight we read scenes from Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It.

Earlier today, I took my car, a 1996 Saturn, to Robert’s Auto Upholstery and had them replace the headliner. The headliner is the cloth area – what might be called a ceiling in a building. The job was really needed badly as the headliner had tears in it and had come loose in the rear.

This morning Jan and I went to the Fitness Center at TCC West and walked three miles (Jan walked two miles.) While I walked I listened to two lectures on CD by John McWhorter on The Story of Human Language produced by The Teaching Company. I checked the CDs out of the Tulsa Library.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Our day with Luke

My son, Nick, called early this morning around 8:30 am. When you are retired, it is often the phone which wakes you up. However, I think I was already up when he called. He said he was bringing Luke, his son, over for a few hours. This was by pre-arrangement and so was not a bolt out of the blue.

Jan had said she wanted to take Luke to a Pumpkin Patch and found a listing of them in the newspaper. I selected one at a United Methodist Church in Owasso to go to.

But before we went there, we went to the McDonald’s at Tulsa Hills, a new shopping center located at 71st St. and Highway 75. As I might have mentioned in a previous blog entry, we walked in to the restaurant recently and was handed a fistful of business-card sized coupons for a free Big Mac. Some radio station was there promoting the new McDonald’s. I got a free Big Mac – the first one I have eaten in years. I usually get a Filet-O-Fish or a McChicken at McDonald’s. We bought Luke a Happy Meal. He is a pretty good eater.

After lunch, we headed for Owasso, probably about twenty miles away. Owasso is northeast of Tulsa, but is close enough to be considered a suburb. The First UMC church was having a Pumpkin Patch to raise money for missions. There were a couple hundred pumpkins scattered over the land. Also, there was a maze constructed out of bales of hay. Jan bought a pumpkin. We let Luke roam over the area, and then we all got in the car and drove back home.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Vacation to Mountain View, Arkansas

We are back from another vacation. This time we went, first, to Springfield, Missouri and visited with my parents. This was on Tuesday, Oct. 21. The next day, we took my sister, Paula, with us on our trip to Mountain View, Arkansas. On the way down we stopped at three locations and searched for and found three caches. Going to Mountain View is like going back in time. The closer you get to Mountain View, the steeper and windier becomes the roadway.

The first cache was at the theater where a Russian-born comedian performs his show. His name is Yakov Smernov. That may not be the exact spelling, but it sounds like that. The next cache was on the grounds of the visitor’s center outside of Harrison, Arkansas. The third cache was high above the Buffalo River. This cache required a half-mile hike to get to.

While in Mountain View we attended two evening mountain music performances. Both were excellent shows which lasted two hours each. On the afternoon of the 23rd, we went through the crafts village. The village has about 20 buildings, each with some kind of craft activity going on inside. There is a blacksmith shop, a broom making shop, a musical instrument shop, a woodcarver’s shop, a candle shop, a print shop, etc. On the grounds of the park are various activities going on. We came upon a group of musicians playing the hammered dulcimer, violin, and guitar. We spent some three or four hours there.

After seeing the display of quilts Friday morning at the quilt show, we headed back toward Springfield. We also found three or four caches in the area.

On Saturday morning Jan and I drove to Cassville where we did a 5K volkswalk in the morning. The walking club hosted a picnic lunch. That afternoon, we headed to Arkansas, where we did another 5K volkswalk at Lost Bridge near Garfield.

Then we headed back toward Sand Springs, stopping first at a catfish restaurant in Siloam Springs for our evening meal.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Recent events

It has been several days since I have updated this blog. I will quickly summarize recent events.

10/3 - Ate breakfast at Panera Bread hosted by Kimberly; got haircut at Rorie’s; saw movie Religulous that evening at Circle Cinema.

10/4 - Attended Movie Night at the Bradleys where we watched Uncounted.

10/5 - Took part in the OCCJ March in downtown Tulsa; attendance was 1,100 people according to Tulsa World.

10/6 - Played piano duets with Gail; went to Mosaics class at Waterworks.

10/7 - Took CVI tests at St. John Medical Center for two to three hours. CVI stands for Cardio Vascular Imaging. My doctor said everything appears normal.

10/8 - Went to drumming at Joe Price’s.

10/9 - Went to fourth session of Reading Shakespeare Aloud.

10/11 - Did volkswalk on west bank of Arkansas River in morning; held Secular Singers rehearsal in my house that afternoon. Attending were Randy. Bea, Larry Roth, and myself.

10/12 – Went to Humanist Study Group at 1 pm; met with Kenny Nipp and Bill Dusenberry at Hideaway Pizza at 3:30 pm to discuss TAM.

10/13 – Opened checking account for TAM; went to Mosaics class that evening.

10/14 – Due to Agora closing early, I had to change the venue for Liberal Action Network to Royal Dragon Restaurant. Small turnout with only two present – myself and Marilyn. I wrote to state senator Nancy Riley and U.S. senator Jim Inhofe and asked for a reply. My question was: Do you think Houses of Worship should be allowed to endorse political candidates and retain their tax exempt status?

10/15 – ALGAE luncheon was held at White River Fish Market at 12:30 pm. At 3 pm, Dr. Coggins removed skin tags and I got a flu shot; that evening we had the Atheists Meetup mid-month social gathering at Te-Kei’s. Attending were Bob and Susan, Karl and Sonia, Bob Hooper, David Harrington, and myself.

10/16 – Attended session 5 of Reading Shakespeare Aloud at Central Library.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Meetups

I went to two meetups yesterday. First, in the morning there was an atheist meetup at Panera Bread on 15th Street. This was the first morning meetup that I recall attending. Nine people showed up for it.

Then in the evening, we had a meetup to see the new Bill Mahar movie Religulous. It was a great movie. When it comes out on DVD, I plan to buy a copy. Following the movie, we (there were 14 of us) went out to have a late meal at The Local Table.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

October 2008 Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Fri., Oct. 3, 7:00 am
The Breakfast Club with Kimberly Burdick will hold its inaugural meeting on this date. The primary purpose for this Atheists Meetup is to provide an opportunity for those whose work schedule keeps them from meeting with us at other times to be a part of our group.

Fri., Oct. 3, 7:30 pm
Group viewing of “Religulous” at Circle Cinema. Will go out for food following the movie.

Sat., Oct. 4, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Movie selection: Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections. This documentary shows how election fraud changed the outcome of the 2004 election and led to even greater fraud in 2006. The documentary reveals how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S. Running time: 80 minutes.

Sun., Oct. 5, 2:30 pm
OCCJ March. Join the 2-mile march which starts at 322 N. Greenwood. Enjoy barbecue afterwards.

Sat., Oct. 11, 2:00 pm
Secular Singers, meet at Dan’s house, 4925 Spruce, Sand Springs

Sun., Oct. 12, 1:00pm
Humanist Study Group at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th. We will listen to and discuss a Point of Inquiry podcast.

Tues., Oct. 14, 7:00 pm
Liberal Action Network at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Wed., Oct. 15, 12:30 am
ALGAE luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan. This is the final weekday luncheon of the year. Note the new time.

Wed., Oct. 15, 7:00 pm
Atheists Meetup Mid-Month Social Gathering. Venue TBA

Sun., Oct. 19, 1:00pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Library, 93rd and Memorial. Brain Hill will review the book Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter.

Sat., Oct. 25, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at Lanna Thai, 7227 S. Memorial.

Sun., Oct. 26, 1:00pm
Atheists Meetup at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.


Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.