Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The scarriest picture of all

Recent pictures

Recent pictures

I guess you could call this a toilet toss. The idea is to toss a roll of toilet paper into the ring.

Recent pictures


The top picture shows a ninja warrior about to select a duckie from a pond. The bottom picture shows the crowd at the event. In the background is the former Page Library. It now houses the Sand Springs Museum. It rained briefly at the start of the event.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Volkswalking in Skiatook

Today was the date of the Tulsa Walking Club's October walk. It was held in Skiatook. The path was a rail-to-trail conversion of the Osage Railroad. I was told it runs all the way from Tulsa to Bartlesville. October is National Volkssport Month. To commemorate the event, the AVA provides a patch which can be obtained for $3 from local clubs. I bought a patch, which is orange in color and depicts pumpkins, a basket of apples, eggplants, etc. It is 3 X 4.5 inches in size.

The walk started in Skiatook and went south on the trail for half the distance. There we met the checkpoint person who punched our start cards. Then we walked back to the start point. The total distance walked was five kilometers. Along the way we met some friends we had not seen in a while.

At 2 pm, we were at the S-B Library for the HAT meeting. There were only five of us there today. When we got back home, I fixed a pot of chili. We watched Moyers while we ate dinner. As soon as I finish this blog, we will watch the NBC Nightly News on the Internet.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Zimmerman concert

Tonight J and I went by the Storey residence in Tulsa and picked up Glenn and Gail. The four of us attended a Roy Zimmerman concert at Hope Unitarian Church. Zimmerman is a singer and songwriter who is constantly on tour going from city to city across the nation. He has written literally thousands of songs. You can hear him sing at his website: www.royzimmerman.com

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Disappointing turnout at protest

First I made my sign at home.

Here I am at the east side of the Hyatt Regency Hotel.



I went to a protest today in downtown Tulsa. The site of the protest was the Hyatt Regency Hotel across the street from the Bank of Oklahoma tower on second street.

I first made a sign on poster board. See picture above of me adding crosshatching to the large letters. I got a from blocks from the house and realized I did not have my cell phone or camera with me. I went back and got those two items. (My cell phone has a camera on it, but I prefer using my Fujifilm camera.)

I parked at the Home Depot parking lot about a half mile away from the hotel. I was a couple of blocks away when I realized I had left my sign in my car. So I trotted back and got my sign. I arrived at the protest site right at 4:30 pm, the appointed time. But alas, I saw no one there I recognized. Then I spotted Ali Canada in front of the BoK tower. I went down to the crosswalk (cops were everywhere) and crossed over to the north side of the street. Ali was carrying a "We Are One" sign from a rally from a few months back. Ginny had asked us be there early to stake out a good site. Ginny, by the way, was suffering from an injury she had sustained from a auto accident a few months back and was unable to come.

While I was chatting with Ali, Faye joined us. As they say, two is company but three is a crowd. A patrolman with the Tulsa Police who was across the street came over to talk with us. The reason for the heavy police presence was a visit by former president G. W. Bush. In addition were several senators and Governor Fallin. It was a big Republican gathering.

The patrolman said that we could not stand on the sidewalk in front of the BoK tower, that an area for protests had been designated on the east side of the Hyatt. We had no choice but to move to the east side of the building. When we got there we met four others who were there for the protest. They soon left to get something to eat, saying they would return. However, they never came back. I asked Ali to snap a picture of me holding my sign. That is the other picture shown in this posting.

Before long two women showed up. Now we were five. About six o'clock, the time for Bush to speak, we decided to walk with our signs. We circled the block three times with our signs. My sign was probably the most lame of the signs. Some of the edgier signs called Bush a war criminal. (The ex-president is limited in the countries he can travel to since some countries have a warrant our for his arrest should he ever cross the border into those countries.)

We dispersed around 7:00 pm. I got a ride with Faye back to my car parked at Home Depot.

Why did not more people take part in the protest? 31 had signed up online to be there. Part of the answer lies in the fact the Oklahoma is the reddest of the red states. Every county in Oklahoma voted for Bush in the last presidential election. I have concluded that many liberals are intimidated when it comes to showing up for protests.

I am heartened by this affirmation by Edward Everett Hale found in the Unitarian hymnal:

I am only one

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Methodist Book Club

This past Monday the Methodist Book Club met. We had read Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker. That was to be the book we discussed in September, but the September meeting was canceled with the book being carried over to October. Our memories of the book had grown a bit dim with us having read other things in the intervening month. Also, Amy (the group leader) forgot to bring the discussion questions, so the discussion was rather free-ranging.

For next month we will be reading Slavery By Another Name by Douglas Blalckmon. That was a book which I had recommended. We are also going to read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston.

Tonight was all you can eat rib night at Rib Crib. We ate there and I had my fill of ribs. When we were in Springfield last week (Wed. - Fri.), we ate at Ryan's Steak House one evening. They had ribs, of which I ate quite a few, but they were not as good as Rib Crib ribs.

Yesterday I finished reading The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. I first read this book about 55 years ago as a student in elementary school. It is the only book I have a memory of having read in elementary school, though I know there were others. The author was also the illustrator. The book is the story of a retired school teacher who sets out from San Francisco in a balloon. A bird lands on top of the balloon and punctures the fabric of the balloon, which causes the balloon to crash on the island of Krakatoa, which is between Java and Sumatra. As it would happen, the residents of the island have constructed a platform which they keep at the ready for swift evacuation. Attached to the platform are twenty balloons. A large volcano is on the island which rumbles constantly. One day it erupts forcing the families on the island to mount the platform and evacuate.

That's the story in a nutshell. The story appealed to me for I could see myself drifting along in a balloon.

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Looking back on the week just ended

Once again, it is Sunday. Looking back to Monday, Sept. 30, Gail come over for duet practice. We had our final practice of "Summer Samba" by Melody Bober, which we played today, Oct. 6, at church. On Wednesday, we went to Tai-Chi Chuan class, which are helds at a Baptist church on 129th St., about a mile from my house. On Thursday, I cooked chili. I had hamburger in mine, but J eats hers without meat. On Friday, we attended Tulsa Town Hall in the Performing Arts Center. The speaker was Kahled Hosseini. He is the author of The Kite Runner, a novel set in Afghanistan.

On Saturday, we had the grandchildren. They are now ages 8 and 10. We went to McDonald's in Sapulpa on Saturday. After spending the night with Nanna and Papa Dan, the grandkids and we got up next morning and went to a model train show in Bixby. (It was more of a swap meet than a show.) We went via Sapulpa, bypassing Tulsa. At Kiefer we got delayed by a train for about 10 minutes. We paid our $3 each for admittance. (The kids were free.) Inside the building, we saw five different layouts of model trains. Everything from N gauge up to O gauge. I think HO gauge is ideal for model trains. A couple of the layouts were fairly large. There happened to be a geocache hidden behind the building which I found.

Today was Humanist Sunday at church. The message was delivered by Larry Roth. Gail and I played "Summer Samba." We imposed upon Joni LeViness to accompany us using shakers. We had 14 people this morning.