Oil Capital Skywatch

Christmas Eve Tulsa had only their third blizzard ever according to one of our television news stations. I don't know if that is true or not but by earlier this week it was still cold with lots of snow on the ground.

I had to work Monday so I took this shot from my office window.

I wish all of you blessings in the coming New Year.

Check out skies from all over the world at Skywatch Friday

"Too Much Happiness" by Alice Munro

"Too Much Happiness" is Alice Munro's latest book. It is a collection of short stories and it is marvelous.

This is the type of book that makes reading almost effortless. She is so smooth and compelling in her writing that I'm drawn in just a few pages and it doesn't even seem like I'm reading.

The book is chilling, lots of secrets presented in ironic ways. The secrets stay secrets but the characters are forever changed by them.

If you like short stories read this book. I rate it 3.5 stars out of 4.

Baby Boomer Christmas

December 1964 - back cover of National Geographic

Where Would You Rather Be?

Here?



Or Here?

from April 1955 National Geographic

After Christmas Dinner and Pairings

Well, we finally had our real Christmas on the day after Christmas. Because of the bad weather here in Tulsa we did not have Christmas with my Mother-in-Law Nana even though we were just a few miles apart. So we had our own Yogi family Christmas and it was fun but our hearts were heavy because Nana was by herself.

So this morning I loaded up my snow shovel and ventured over to her house and shoveled her driveway and front porch. Loaded her up and brought her home. Things were immediately better. SuperPizzaBoy especially was missing his Nana.



We exchanged gifts



Sweetie who had been cooking and setting the table put it all on the table.



And we sat down to finally have our Christmas Dinner.



You know exchanging gifts and all that good stuff is nice but sharing meals and visiting on Christmas the best part. Nana got me a set of disks that have all the National Geographics since 1888 on it. Below is a picture from their June 1959 issue showing a German family hosting some American Servicemen. Hopefully NG won't mind me sharing the photograph with you.

Oh, I love the tree, the candles on the tree, the little candle windmill doodad, the cradle and the guy playing the violin. You know, when I was a kid it was ok to have trees that were not so darn bushy!

I'm digressing, its Sunday and its time for a Bible verse. Since it's after Christmas I'm going to use one concerning the birth of Jesus, after he was born, when his parents took him to the temple to be circumcised in accordance with their beliefs.

^"25Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
 ²⁹"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
      you now dismiss your servant in peace.
 ³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,
    ³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
 ³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles
      and for glory to your people Israel.""

Luke 2:25-32
NIV

For other pairings of photographs with Bible verses check out That's Baloney.

Timely Gifts for Self

I learned and continue to learn a lot from my Dad, (aka "Gramps"). One of the most valuable things I learned from him is to do my own shopping for stocking stuffers for myself at Christmas. So over the years I have treated myself to all sorts of stuff from camo duct tape, to those nifty little Craftsman tools from Sears, CD's, pens, notebooks, candy bars, and all sorts of other more or less useful "neat stuff." I don't do this selfishly. I've done it to take the load and worry off of Sweetie about what to get me for stocking stuffers. She has been pretty good about hiding her appreciation of my consideration.

This year though I got myself only one item. They are ice traction slip-ons that go over shoes. The way the weather has turned out this could be one of my most useful stocking stuffers ever.

So what personal holiday traditions do you have?

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Yogis. We had a White Christmas this year. I don't know quite how much but I'm guessing that we had about 5" or so at the house. It drifted up to maybe a foot in some places.



Lots of fun Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We got a lot of snow so we are not quite done with Christmas yet since we have not been able to get together with my favorite MIL Nana.

We'll probably get with her tomorrow and Sweetie will cook our Christmas Dinner then.

So today is a day of shoveling snow and rest. My neighbor Mark came over and lent a hand shoveling my driveway after he did his. What a guy! Great timing. My tired was beginning to show.



I think everybody was pretty happy with the gifts. We just want to get together with Nana.

I hope that everybody is having a great day.

Winter Geocaching Skywatch

Nothing like being out in the woods on a nice December Day in Oklahoma. Its raining now with snow and ice predicted in a few hours.

Merry Christmas from the Yogi's.

Check out Skywatch Friday for views of the sky from all over the world.

Do You Still Believe?

SuperPizzaBoy Does!

Merry Christmas from the Yogi family to yours.

Thanks for the photo Sweetie!

Hunting Christmas Downtown

I'm working when I'd rather be off and spending time with the family but hey that's life. So I went out at lunch and took some Christmas photographs. This being the kind of year it is and everything there is not too much Christmas hustle and bustle about nor are there any large displays of Christmas decorations. So I had to hunt for them.

The only outside Christmas lights I saw were at a construction site of all places.



You have to look really, really hard.

And I found some decorated trees in office building lobbies. I'm sparing you the other photographs. They were even more blurrier than this one.



One of our downtown hotels didn't have much in the way of Christmas trees but they have a chandelier that I just love and they had some greenery and lights to go with it.



One of my favorite spots is a former ice rink converted over to a trade room for a big energy company way back in the 1990's. It is a very nice atrium area now with a nice fountain. Somebody dropped off a couple of poinsettias to make it Christmassy.



I took my tour and I feel better about the whole deal now. I'll have tomorrow off.

I hope that you are having a great Christmas season.

Watery Wednesday - Centennial Park

Photograph captured during a walk Monday lunchtime enjoying a pretty day at Centennial Park just to the east of downtown Tulsa.

For other wet and watery views from here there and all around check out Watery Wednesday.

A Pretty Christmas Tree

This tree may not look like much. In fact it may be the ugliest tree around until you know the story behind it.

Two years ago a well respected and much loved, especially in our town's special needs community, physician died after a long illness. She was a very hard working and compassionate physician who was an advocate for her patients. We were fortunate enough that she was SuperPizzaBoy's physician. Her daughter attended the same school as our SuperPizzaBoy so we got to see quite a bit of the doctor.

Everybody at the school was very saddened by the mother's passing. A decision was made to plant a tree in her honor at the school. Several people were involved, both school staff and parents. They wanted to honor the deceased doctor and mother and encourage her daughter.

So, plans were made, funds were budgeted, time passed, a tree was selected and planted a month or so ago.

Now you find out that children and adults can see things differently. An adult sees a bare tree in the Winter and doesn't really worry about it. They know that winter is a good time to plant a tree and that if you take care in planting it will leaf out in the Spring and be beautiful. Many adults like to see a bare tree in the Winter. It allows us to see the bones of the tree and appreciate that beauty. I'm proud to say that my wife, Sweetie was involved, as well as several others.

A child though when hearing that a special tree was planted in honor of her mother may react differently. She may cry when she sees the tree because it isn't pretty like her mother was.

Well, before you know it the teachers and staff of the school as well as some of the mothers of the other kids immediately set out to make the tree pretty by hanging ornaments and decorations on it. The husband of a teacher came out on his own and strung the lights.

The tree is now a pretty tree thanks to a bunch of people who saw what needed to be done and did it.

So, teachers, teacher's spouse's, staff, and parents who helped make this happen. This Angel is for you.

Fireman Award - Old Republic Home Protection Company

Last week I blasted Old Republic Home Protection Company for the way that they treated my Mother-in-Law on a home heating system repair. Old Republic's service company here in Tulsa wasn't being very responsive and was pushing an expensive repair that was not covered by Old Republic. We ended up getting another service company in who was able to get my MIL's heater going. I spend a considerable amount of time with a Old Republic representative on the phone but I got nowhere with him and didn't suggest any alternatives or appeals or anything. I was very disappointed with the situation.

So I decided to write a post about the situation that I perceived as Old Republic taking advantage of the situation. First I sent Old Republic a message via the "Contact Us" section of their web site. I laid out the situation as I saw it and invited them to respond. I also told them that I was going to lay out the situation in a blog post (not that I think that my blog has much influence with anybody but hey, its the only voice I have).

Anyway I sent it one day, waited the next day for  a response, and then wrote my post the day after that.  I got a call from an executive from Old Republic who told me that they emailed me twice. I looked at my email and didn't see but then checked my spam folder and sure enough they had emailed me twice. Anyway, I have egg all over my face and am still embarrassed by the situation.

What they are doing is they are refunding my Mother-in-Law the money she spent with the other company. They are also going to discuss the situation with their local contractor to see where the breakdown is and how things can be different in the future. I really think that are doing their best to make the situation right. And I'm reminded about being a more responsible about the stuff I write and to always check the spam folder and also allow a little more time.

Also, I think that it is time to rescind the award I gave them before and introduce a new one. So the old award, that shall not be named, is hereby rescinded and a new one, The Firefighter Award (I was going to call it Fireman but I'm totally into the eliminating gender bias thing and also refuse to use the term "fireperson"as being too wrong.) for people and companies who do their best to rectify a situation.

So Mr. Contractor Relations Guy at Old Republic and Old Republic here is your award.



Thanks for responding quickly and making things right. I appreciate it very much.

I like this award thing. The positive ones that is. I didn't feel good about the the other award. It might get retired.

December Geocaching

I finally got to do some geocaching yesterday. I have found only two since the first of November. The holidays are very busy and there has been a lot of work to do but I found myself with a couple hours yesterday so I took advantage of it.

First one is on the back side of a pond near our former residence.



They added the pond while we lived there. I remember when we first heard about it. The city sent a notice that they planning on building a "detention facility" and was seeking public comment. We got a little excited. I thought they were going to build a jail in the neighborhood. Turns out it was a detention pond. That's better.

Here is the first cache I found.



I had tried last summer to find it. It was easier to find this time because much of the undergrowth had died. Still it took a while to find. The owner had wrapped artificial leaves around it.



Another one was in a small patch of woods between a cemetery and the Creek Turnpike. Geocachers love this little pieces of leftover land. We are the only ones whoever go in these tracts. Except for the little kids playing war and the bigger kids smoking. Still this was pretty remote. The cache was inside a small garbage can.



The next one was right of the biking trail of the Creek Turnpike. Just sitting out in the open. The container is the little hint of red on the lower left hand corner of the photograph. It is a plastic coffee can wrapped in burlap.



This last one was only about two feet off the same biking trail. It the stump in the shadow to the extreme left. I can't believe that it hasn't been "muggled" by somebody. To geocachers muggles are those people who are't aware of the sport. Muggles tend to "muggle" caches, to steal or vandalize them.

Placing a large cache so close to muggles without them finding it is hard to do. SuperPizzaBoy have a cache in plain sight ("Boys Night Out - City Center") in downtown Tulsa that has been found 99 times in the last year or so but never muggled. As one of the recent finders put it:

"Found this one before work. I had looked for this a couple days ago but didn't find it. But thinking about it later, I walked right to it this morning. I didn't even bother with the GPS. And yes, I will admit I looked in the phone box the first time, too. This cache is a great testimony to the absolute cluelessness of the average downtown walker. Hands shoved in their pockets, eyes to the ground staring at their shoes, the average guy observes almost nothing. Once you know where this is, you would think it would stick out like a sore thumb. Great hide of a regular cache in the urban jungle. Thanks!"

(Goes to show you one parallel between geocachers and bloggers, we both love thoughtful comments!)

So now I have found 880 total caches over the years. My goal is to get to 1000 in 2010. I'm told that when that happens then my hair will grow back, I'll get better looking and smarter, plus I'll be able to wear 34 waist slacks again. 2010 could be a good year for me.

Anyway I had a great time finding those caches. What have you done recently for fun?

New Moon - the Movie

Sweetie and I went to see New Moon last weekend. I loved it. Lots better than the book, lots. They cut the hundreds of pages of teenage angst to a 30 second sweep. Wonderful!!

This movie is better than the original Twilight movie.

I still don't get why the the little whiny girl likes Edward instead of Jacob. Edward is such a fop. My dear Aunt B told me after I reviewed the first movie that is because I am not a teenage girl. All I can say is thank goodness for that.

I give it 3.5 stars out of 4.

Skip the book, go see the movie! Check out the web site. Lots of good stuff there.

Skywatch Friday - Cold North Wind

For views of the sky from all over the world please check out Skywatch Friday.

Secret Santa

This year I signed up for the Secret Santa gift exchange sponsored by Georgie and Amy over at Decisionally Challenged one of my most favorite blogs. I held off from joining until Georgie invited me so what the heck I went for it. It looked to be almost all women, which is not a problem for me. I like women, I love hanging around with them. I think they are great and have always gotten along well with them. I like hanging around with guys also but women just add that little extra zing to things. Especially my wife Sweetie, she puts the Z in zing.

Anyways after I signed up then the anxiety starts. What am I going to buy for the exchange? I'm just no good at picking out scented candles and other smelly items or useless little soaps and stuff like that. The person I'm going to buy for is going to be so disappointed in  rolls of camo duct tape, tshirts,  fishing cap led lights and stuff like that. Luckily I got paired with somebody who would I think appreciate stuff like that. She was very gracious about it when she blogged about it. The stuff probably ended up in a dirty santa exchange but hey that's life.

So, then I waited for my little soaps, pot pourri, and candles, maybe a book mark or a bodice ripper romance novel. Hey, I was ready for anything and then Sweetie called me and said my Secret Santa gift had arrived. I got home and sure enough I had a package waiting for me.



I opened it up and guess what?



It is a Guppie Multi-Tool!

Its has a knife, a multi-bit screw driver, wrench, flashlight, and a beer bottle opener.





This tool is going to get used a lot. It'll be perfect for repairing geocaches and stuff around the house and office. I'm going to carry it wherever I go. It's wonderful.

Thank you Secret Santa. Your gift is very thoughtful and generous. I appreciate it very much.

Thank you Georgie and Amy.

Can I joing again next year?

Old Republic Home Protection Company

I got a call a few minutes ago from a representative of Old Republic Home Protection Company. Apparently they tried emailing me a couple times about the issue described below and unfortunately their messages ended up in the spam directory of my email account. So I am very embarrassed about that.

Anyway they have offered to make the situation right and rectify things and I am very grateful for that. So I'll keep everybody posted on how things go.

I might just have to retire the BIH award. I didn't really like it anyway. I'm hopeful that this situation works out.

First Angel Award Winner

Introducing



The Angel Award

This is my humble attempt to recognize those people and organizations that go out of their way to help people. Its not meant so much for those organizations that are philanthropic in nature. It is meant for those people and organizations who extend themselves to help people.

The winners of the First Angel Award is:

Wortman Central Air Conditioning Company right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

They get it because they came to my Mother-in-Law Nana who was without heat in her house despite purchasing a Home Warrranty from a company. The company sent out a tech who reported that the problem was "bad insulation" on the heat exchanger and to fix it would cost $350, in addition to $75 for the service call. That explanation didn't make any sense so I called the home warranty company where despite my best Yogi charm all I got was the run around.

I advised Nana to p&a the home warranty supplied tech (that's plug and abandon to those dear readers who are not oilfield trash) and call Wortman. The guy from Wortman showed up and replaced a fuse and a couple filters for about $83 and reported that there was no "bad insulation" on the heat exchanger.

So last night Nana was warm and cozy thanks to Wortman. Thanks guys and gals of Wortman!

As far as the home warranty company? I sent them an message last night relating my side of the story and asked them what kind of award they think they deserve. We'll see what they say.

Meantime I have another award. I got the idea from my friend Baloney. She is such a sweet young woman until you make her mad. You don't want to do that. She has her poop hat award. I'm not going to copy that but she gave me some fiery hot chewing gum. I love the package. I loved it so much I've made an award out of it.



Its designed for those people and organizations who exploit those who are vulnerable. I can tell you that since Nana lost her husband a couple short years ago she has encountered many many Angels for whom I will always be grateful but she has also encounterd more than her share of others who tried to exploit her. That makes me angry. That makes me burn. Then when you think about all the vulnerable people in the world it is almost too much.

What do you think I should call  the award? Do you have any candidates?

Really though, I am more interested in finding out about the Angels amongst us. I know a bunch myself. Let me know about those you know.

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!!



We had a little family birthday party for her.



Her mother got her a nice cake.



You want to know what kind of nice guy I am? I know you don't really but as you can guess I'm going to tell you anyway. I took the numbers off the cake for the photograph.

Speaking of her Mother, here is Nana.



I warned her. You mess with me, I'm putting you on the blog! So here you are.

Nana also provided the legendary Birthday Angel. Its been a part of Sweetie's birthdays ever since she was a little girl. It used to embarrass Sweetie. Now she adores it.



Nana also sponsored a tea for Sweetie. Over a score of her dear friends came in her honor. Security was posted to keep low life crusty gas guys bloggers off the premises so I missed it. All reports though were that it was a great success. Sweetie was certainly thrilled.



Happy Birthday Sweetie

Matthew 5:16

Even so let your light be shining before men, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Bible in Basic English

For other pairings of photos and verse check out That's Baloney.

12 Pains of Christmas

Its Christmas Folks!



Are you in the spirit yet?

Christmas Gift Idea for Stalkers

Do you have an iphone? Do you have a special someone you are trying to keep track of? This is just for you!



You understand that this isn't about me right? Right?

Rocking around the Clock

SuperPizzaBoy finally got the Christmas Spirit the other day at a recital at his school.

Sorry for the shaky video. The camera guy is kind of old. In fact he was old a long time ago.



Do you have your Christmas Spirit yet!

Skywatch - The Moose is Loose

I went on a run recently on a very pretty but very cold day. I decided to take a picture of the sky and grass. Look who walked up and ruined it.

Check out Skywatch Friday for views of skies from all over the world.

Tulsa Winterfest '09 and Christmas Spirit and does Baloney have a Snuggie?

Big Secret in town. Tulsa is having a Winterfest in downtown Tulsa right next to the BOK center. No lie, go check it out here.

I had to go check this out. Its not a rumor, its true! They have a Christmas tree and an ice rink.  It was pretty lonely the day I was there. But I don't think they counted on much happening during the workday anyway.



Here is the ice rink.



Hey who has the Christmas Spirit yet?

Hey SuperPizzaBoy!! You feeling it!!



LJ? What about you?!


Ginger, the Christmas Dog?



Well, I'm into it!!



Lets leave all those grouchy ones and go look at some lights!



Then lets watch "White Christmas" with Bing and the gang.



Lets go do a little shopping. Sometimes you find find out about your kids when you go shopping. Sometimes you find about your friends also. Sometimes ... (you get the picture) For example, son SPB spent some time with his friend Michael. Michael's mother is my friend Baloney. You remember her right? The Cheater.



Well SPB and I were in his most hated store, Kohls, when we walked by the Snuggie counter. They are like a throw with arms made into them. Well, SuperPizzaBoy picks one up and says:



Baloney, what are exposing my child to??!! I mean besides sentences ending in prepositions?

What do you do to get in the Christmas Spirit? I mean for those who celebrate Christmas.