Okie Sister

Rock And Roll Band

"Well, we were just another band out of Boston...
But when we got up on stage and got ready to play
People came alive."

The first of my summer concerts is behind me. It was quite a surreal experience for me to return to the concert venue of my youth. Funny, the bands playing were from my youth as well. Styx and Boston put on an incredible show. The music still sounded like it does on my radio. Now when I hear it, I can say, "Hey, I saw them in concert."

The OKC Zoo Amphitheater is an intimate setting for a show. It was just me, my husband, and 9998 drunk people. Tell me, how can you be outdoors, and still be hacking up a lung from cigarette smoke? I had a slight buzz by the end of the night from breathing the air. Yes, some of those cigarettes did smell sweeter than others.

Even though it was 100 degrees that day and we were packed in with this huge crowd, it was not unpleasant. A cool breeze managed to sweep across the hillside at just the right moments; almost in time with the slower rock ballads. Overall it was a fun and nostalgic evening out.

What It Seems To Be

Heading to lunch at the Back Porch Restaurant, it would have been difficult to overlook the new 23 foot sculpture downtown. As I turned on to D Avenue, I was taken aback to see that over the weekend this monument had been erected next to the Central Fire Station.

It did look familiar, but I couldn’t immediately place where I had seen it before. And why was it moved to this location right next to the street? Evidently others wondered as well, because there was a write up a few weeks later in the Sunday newspaper. Nobody knew who gave authority for the structure to be moved from The Little Chapel property up the block to this concrete pad across the street from the art gallery. It just showed up.

The three legged steel obelisk had been purchased by the art gallery in 1981 from Benson Warren, an art professor at the local university. He had even helped with the mystery move over the weekend.

The title of the art piece? "Women Are Born In The Sky It Seems."

 

Cattails

As a little girl, I used to collect cattails when we went on our family outings to Elmer Thomas Park. I would bring them home and display them in my bedroom. You can preserve them by coating each one with hair spray. When I forgot to do that, they would explode their fuzziness like dandelions all over my room and mom would get upset.

Racing To The Remote

The Digital Video Recorder was invented for me. I am their target consumer. For the rest of you, enjoying yours...you are welcome. How did I live before I had a DVR? While watching TV, I used to channel surf any time a commercial came on. I had it timed to perfection and knew exactly when to return to the original program. Sometimes though, I would try to watch two show at once this way. It used to drive my husband crazy. That and the fact that he never got to have control over the remote. Why? Because he didn’t know how to operate it, he still doesn’t. Why? Because I have control over the remote. Why? You get the picture.

The fact that people are still watching live TV is beyond me. Approximately 20 minutes of each hour long program is commercials. I don’t care to buy that stuff, so why would I want to be bombarded with ads. What do I do with all these extra 20 minutes? Um...I use it to watch more programs. Sad, but true. I am a TV junkie.

Here’s the only draw back I have found to the DVR. Sometimes people, blogs, newspapers, or other media give details about television shows. I may have it recorded but have not gotten around to watching it yet. So I have to shelter myself from hearing certain TV related discussions.

Plus, every year about this time, the same thing always happens. Right here in the middle of racing season, I get behind on viewing all my recorded races. Part of this is because I enjoy so many different series; NASCAR Sprint Cup, Nationwide (formerly known as Busch), Craftsman Truck, IndyCar, and NHRA Funny Car. I would watch even more if I had the time, but I can hardly fit in those last two. Ideally, for a four or five hour race, I would start watching my recording a couple of hours into it. That way I see the race the day it is run and don’t have to go around shielding myself from media. My husband goes so far as to throw away the sports section of the newspaper when it has race results in it. Isn’t he thoughtful?

So I’ve been doing other things lately, especially on the warm weekends, and have fallen behind on my race viewing. This is the reason that I haven’t been blogging about it. I haven’t been able to stay current enough. I’ll leave that for the time being to the folks over at NASCAR Bloggers FT Digest. They seem to be right on top of the latest happenings. Not that I can read their site right now, because...I am so behind on my races. Grrr!

For example, I was elated about Brad Keselowski winning a Nationwide race for JR Motorsports. I didn’t blog about it because it was old news by the time I watched that race. So, kudos, young Keselowski! I guess better late than never for congrats. (Keselowski is so cute with his braces.) I like saying Keselowski because Keselowski really rolls off of the tongue doesn’t it?

And does anyone out there start singing Bang A Gong by T-Rex any time you hear the name of Craftsman truck driver Brendan Gaughan? "Brendan Gaughan, Brendan Gaughan, Bren - dan Gaughan" No... Oh, I don't do that either... I was just asking.

The truck series had been extra exciting this year with first timers and Rookies winning races: Matt Crafton, Donny Lia, and Scott Speed. I enjoy seeing these underdogs win against the big racing teams. That and watching Kyle Busch blow up or crash out. I enjoy seeing that immensely. It always brings a smile to my face.

Okay, and now, what’s the BIG something that always happens when I get behind every summer on viewing my racing? Somebody......let’s say, like Dale Earnhardt, Jr......wins a race after a two year streak. That’s kind of a huge deal. How do I shield myself from that kind of news?

I actually found out about it the very next morning on one of my favorite blogs, The Wonderful World of Nothing Worthwhile. (Thanks for the spoiler alert, Michael.) My husband called me not fifteen minutes later to tell me to avoid it that particular morning. He knows I enjoy starting my day by reading TWWONW because the writer reminds me a lot of my younger brother. See, my husband’s a thoughtful guy who’s always looking out for me...but his timing is not always great. Well...sorry dude, but it’s true. I actually never heard any more about Jr’s win because...well...I don’t watch live TV, that’s why.

Inspirational View

I'm not feeling too inspired to write lately. Maybe I need to go back to the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge and sit up there on top of Mount Scott again.    (click photo to enlarge)

Sign From Above

I was driving across town yesterday on Cache Rd, nicknamed Crash Road, when this idiot in a red Ford pickup raced past me in the right hand turn only lane. The fact that the lane was ending didn’t deter this fool, as he cut in front of cars and crossed two lanes of traffic without signaling just before plowing through a major intersection.

Hey, this isn’t NASCAR dude! Although it did remind me of some stunt Kyle Busch would try; sticking the nose of his race car into a spot that wasn’t big enough. With Kyle this usually results in spinning another driver out or turning their car into the wall. The other drivers around me must have recognized this "Rowdy" move too, because everyone checked up and backed off in order to avoid "The Big One."

I wonder what the lawn cutting emergency was that had this moron in such a hurry anyway. I’m posting this picture in case someone he knows wants to call him into "The Hauler" and give him a talking to. Not that he would probably listen to anyone’s advice. Most people who live fast and loose seldom do until it’s too late. What do you need, a sign?

How about this one?

 

 

 

In case you can't read it, it says, "If God is your copilot, swap seats." And below it, partly blocked by a pole is the number for the DUI School.

 

Men vs. Me, Part 2

My husband went to the store to get me one AAA battery for the TV remote. Look at the deal he found. He was so proud. Now where am I supposed to store all the rest of these. We could just leave them on the kitchen counter where you left them until we use them all. I guess that is your plan.

 

Thanks honey for finding the Paint Shop Pro software that I have been looking for these past few months so I could install it on my new computer. I searched all the cabinets and your entire office at work, my desk and office at work, my enormous pile of stuff and my desktop area in my office here at the house twice - after you said you gave it to me already. Thanks for finally lifting your fingers two inches away from face at your desk here at home and retrieving the installation disc. I appreciate it, really I do.

 

Fathers

Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there!

As a general rule, I don’t think guys really care too much about these made up holidays, except for the gifts. Guys like getting presents: watches, wallets, car stuff, grill equipment, and sports whatnot. So, I hope you dad’s all get that new gadget you’ve had your eye on.

Today, I wished my father-in-law a happy day. He’s the only parent I have left and he’s an outstanding one. Luckily, I get to see him most every day because we work together at the family business. We share a lot of laughs, mostly at my husband’s expense. Pop is full of great stories and loves to tell them. I love to hear them. I don’t need a special holiday to tell him how much I care about him and enjoy his company.

 

I spent most of yesterday working on my family tree. Have I told you today how time consuming and addictive genealogy is? No wonder it’s a hobby of many retired folks. Geez, I sit down at my computer for a few minutes and the next thing I know, it’s tomorrow.

Good thing my oldest brother is helping me, or I would go nuts trying to figure out all the various branches. I refer to my Dad’s side of the family as the double helix because so many families are intertwined through marriage. Two sisters from one family married two brothers from another family with the same last name and another sister married a cousin to the brothers. Confused yet? Welcome to my world. This sort of thing happened in several generations, too. Now that I think of it, all of this makes it more like a Hoberman sphere than a helix. That, or a slinky!

 

So, here’s to you Robert Addams; who came from Wales to Virginia aboard the Bona Nova in 1622 to re-establish Martha’s Hundred into what later was known as Jamestown Colony. I don’t know if it’s true that you’re my forefather or not. An older family tree had us connected, but there was a large age span in one generation; which makes me think a generation was skipped. Your family is well documented down to a certain point in the 1700’s. My own family is now documented back six generations to an unknown grandfather from South Carolina, who married a woman from Virginia. Their children were born 1796 to 1820. This is just one generation away from the above Robert Addams family descendents. I refer to this as the search for the missing link. Appropriate, don’t you think? So the search continues for that one elusive name...the last piece of the puzzle.

Turn It Up

Concert tickets are multiplying at my house like rabbits.

Before February of this year, when I attended the Miranda Lambert concert at Ft. Sill, I hadn’t been to a concert since about 1992 when I saw Brooks and Dunn at an outdoor venue. Before that concert, I hadn’t been to one since the early eighties; not including a couple of local shows I’ve seen like Oklahoma's own Phil Sampson and Blueprint.

In the late seventies and early eighties, I attended numerous concerts around southwest Oklahoma: Heart, Hank Williams Jr., REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar, Van Halen, and the Doobie Brothers to name a few. The first concert I ever attended was Foghat in Corpus Christi, Texas; the last was The Grateful Dead north of Austin about 1981. Then I stopped partying and settled down. Then I became a mom and that’s what I did for the next 20 years.

So, what’s going on here? I heard about Lynyrd Skynyrd coming to Ft. Sill and decided earlier this year to attend that 4th of July celebration. We would be able to enjoy VIP passes to the event; which will include parking, a meal and up-front seating. At the end of the show there will be fireworks; always a plus. Sounds fun right? Freeeee-Birrrrd!

Then my husband talked me into going to a concert in OKC this summer with another couple we have been out with before. They wanted to see Styx and Boston. Since I missed seeing those two bands in my youth, I thought it might be fun. I guess it will be, if they still sound good and I don’t have to deal with any claustrophobic crowd situations. Did I mention this was out of town? That means I have to stress about my dog getting her medication on time that evening. But I’m not talking myself out of it or anything; or am I? It will either be great fun or I will vow never to leave my home again. Stay tuned.

Now cut to last weekend, when my daughter came for a visit. She presented me with a present while she was here; two tickets to paradise. Actually, two ticket to see my favorite group of all time, Santana. This Okie gal thinks that Carlos Santana is a Rock God; the Greatest Guitarist of All Time. I told my daughter that she couldn’t have given me a more perfect gift. I’m glad she knows me so well.

So, here I sit with concert tickets to three different shows. Very weird for this borderline agoraphobic.

Now rock out as you enjoy my favorite Santana song. Which one? All of them and many more...

Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile)

Aquamarine

Open Invitation

Samba Pa Ti

Quiz

Question: What do joggers, my husband, and Wonder Woman have in common?

Answer: They all have found dead bodies within the last month.

Lynda Carter, who played Wonder Woman in the 70’s television show, was alone in a boat when she discovered a body floating on the Potomac River in Washington on June 4th. She yelled to fishermen to call the police, then waited until rescuers arrived in order to direct them to the woman.

 

"See honey, this sort of thing doesn't just happen to you."

Neighbors Bug Me

They’re back! These nasty little red bugs are all over my front porch and drive. They come from my neighbor’s tree.

 

This tree is right on the corner of the property. There is no reason whatsoever to have a tree growing there. When it was smaller, I used to hack off the limbs sticking out over my trash cans. Now, it is too enormous. The roots grow up under the fence and the corner of my house and driveway. If a storm should break a branch, it would surely fall through my roof. Plus, it must release some kind of seed, because I'm forever pulling up little trees out of my flowerbeds.

These are the same neighbors that have a giant cottonwood tree in their back yard that I’m allergic to. I get stuffy each year when it starts snowing down the cotton. This crap gets all over my yard and clogs up my air conditioner unit on that side of the house.

These are the neighbors on the other side of the eight foot fence that we built around our back yard; whose boys still manage to bash the side of my house with baseballs.

"Please, won’t you be my neighbor?"

My Boys Are Back

My Boys is a great summer show starting up again this Thursday over on TBS. (Tomorrow night, June 12, 2008) It stars Jordano Spiro as PJ the sportswriter. She has all these guy friends that she plays poker and exchanges barroom banter with. Her brother is played by real life comedian Jim Gaffigan. Kyle Howard plays one of her guy pals. PJ is a real tomboy, and is completely out of her element in the dating world. Watch this show because last year it was very fun!

This got me thinking about what’s available to watch on TV during the summer. Here’s what I enjoy.

Psych is a hysterical show on USA. Sometimes I watch an episode twice to catch all the one liners that reference pop culture; my generation pop culture. James Roday and Dule Hill portray the perfect buddy team, solving crimes with fake psychic abilities. But it’s not about the crime solving, it’s about the one liners. Corbin Bernsen’s character adds a sly, dry humor to the show with his cameos as the disappointed cop dad. Plus, this show has outtakes at the end of each episode. It’s new season begins July 18 following Monk.

 

Burn Notice is also on USA. It stars Jeffrey Donovan as a fired spy trying to figure out who got him blacklisted. In the meantime he uses his skills to help the less fortunate against Miami bad guys. He accomplishes this with the help of an ex-girlfriend played by the beautiful Gabrielle Anwar and his buddy played by Bruce Campbell. Sharon Gless is superb as his chain smoking mother. The show is humorous and has a sort of retro Miami Vice feel to it. Plus they have good guest stars on the show like Richard Shiff, Lucy Lawless, Ray Wise, and Ayre Gross. New season starts on July 10.

Nashville Star has been a guilty pleasure of mine since the first season but this year it's a completely different show, so I don't know if I still like it. I'll have to watch another episode. So You Think You Can Dance is entertaining and Last Comic Standing is always good for a laugh or two, or three. The Closer and Saving Grace both start their new seasons on TNT July 14.

Now, your turn. Leave me a comment and tell me any other shows that are good to watch during the summer.

Mr. President

Have I shown you pictures of my grandkids?

No. Well that’s because I don’t have any; unlike my two older sisters. But that’s okay, because my daughter is at least four years younger than any of my nieces and nephews. Five or six of those kids all grew up together, only three years apart. My daughter missed having a cousin her same age on my side of the family.

I pointed out to her this weekend that when I was her exact age, I had been married for four years and just found out I was pregnant with her. I further noted that I ended up divorced and a single parent for awhile. I explained that I had a much better sense of who I was at thirty years of age. Better sense too, for that matter.

My daughter is concentrating on her career at this time and also wants to further her education in the future. That makes me proud. In the meantime, I will enjoy my "grandson," Mr. President. Here’s a photo of him enjoying Elmer Thomas park.

I call him Mr. Man, Little Buddy, but mostly Mr. P. Why? Well, here he is watering my ornamental grasses for me.

Thanks Mr. P, that will really help them grow!

I heard a scratching sound this weekend and looked over to find him trying to push the flap open on the doggie door. He had gotten himself outside just fine, but was a little apprehensive about the return trip. It’s a slightly higher elevation from the outside.

He’s a tiny little bug and you have to be careful not to step on him when he’s underfoot. It’s funny watching him tag along behind my girls.

And yes, he does have a mohawk. That's because his hair hasn't grown back in from his recent injury. He’s a happy little fellow. It’s hard to believe that he’s over four years old now. It seems like just yesterday...sniff, sniff. They grow up so fast!

Cow Whisperer

My daughter was in town for the weekend. Saturday afternoon my husband and I took her for a scenic drive in the country. That’s about 10 miles southwest of town. My husband had been wanting to capture some photos of the area wheat harvesters in action. If you’ve never seen this yearly event, I have to tell you, it’s a beautiful sight. We sing about the "amber waves of grain" but not all have experienced their color first hand.

Well, we found mostly fields that had already been cut. Only two farmers had their John Deere’s in action. As our crazy luck would have it, they were both on the west side of the road. So taking a picture meant you were pointing straight into the blinding afternoon Oklahoma sun.

Along the way, we stopped to admire this herd of cattle huddled up in the corner of a pasture. I snapped a couple of photos of the "moo cows." I liked seeing the Wichita Mountains in the background. "For purple mountain majesties above the fruited plains."

I can also see the blue west side water tower. That’s pronounced "water-tire" for all you non-Okies. The cattle of course are kept in with barbed wire fencing. Repeat after me, "bob-wire."

I noticed that all the animals had ear tags with numbers on them. See this one. I’ll call it Bo, because it's a perfect 10.

Then I spotted the obvious "brown cow of the family."

 

"Number 366, could you step forward please," I joked.

Imagine my surprise when it did just that.

"Just one more step forward please. Thank you."

My family cracked up and my husband started calling me "The Cow Whisperer." Who knew I had this bovine calling in me.

The Solution

Okay, so what do you do if the local gangs keep tagging your concrete fence?

Well, one local resident decided to take a creative approach and invite the city’s high school art students to paint a puzzle mural titled, "Be A Piece Of The Solution. "

Local business helped with the project, the media came out to cover the story and soon it was a community wide event. Fort Sill’s MG Peter Vangjel even stopped by to paint a signature "V" down in the right hand corner. The end pillars to the fence, or wall, are painted camouflage to honor the military - Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery. This is quite fitting since the base has always been the strong support of our community. Some of the highlights and history of Lawton depicted on the mural are:

Native Americans, buffalo, Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, and the Boulevard of Lights Christmas display. Central Jr. High, which was the original Lawton High School, and is now being remodeled to house city government offices.

Our Goodyear Tire plant, which holds the title of being the largest single producer of tires in the world. It was a very big boost to our economy when they moved to town in the late 70’s. Back The Blue symbol to honor our local law enforcement. A replica of highway signs erected to honor our home town beauty Miss America 2007, Lauren Nelson. A Calvary logo for our new champion CBA team.

This little prairie dog holding up a Elmer Thomas Park sign tickled me.

Two large pieces of our history are Apache leader Geronimo and Major General Henry Ware Lawton, our founding father. Lawton was quartermaster at Fort Sill and pursued the Indian warrior. After his surrender, Geronimo was jailed at the Old Post Guardhouse. Geronimo’s gravesite is located on Ft. Sill.

Symbols for the fire and rescue, local schools and Cameron University. Wayne’s Drive Inn, a local eatery that has been in business since 1950; when three boys Wayne, Charley and Marvin each started a drive in. I’ve spend many hours at Wayne’s enjoying their delicious fountain drinks. Former residents always stop in at Wayne’s when returning for a visit.

Tag - "To mark or vandalize (a surface) with graffiti."

Update

Yes, I’m still alive. I had an unannounced intermission there, didn‘t I?

I’ve been at work more than usual this week. I almost wrote...I’ve been working more...but that would be untrue. Except for cleaning the office last weekend when we were closed; that was a lot of hard work. I even broke a couple of vacuum cleaners in the process. With the phone ringing every five minutes, it’s hard to get any actual work done. So I’ve been at work more, but my actual work is piled up around me now.

 

What little spare time I did have lately, I used emailing family and updating my family tree. I scanned several old pictures from an album; mostly on my mom's side of the family, like this picture of my mom when she was young. 

My oldest brother and I are contacted fairly often from distant cousins who see our genealogy information online. We exchange emails with them and learn interesting facts about our ancestors. It's all very addictive and time consuming.

ATM Karma's Gonna Get You

I tend to believe that what goes around, comes around. If you mess with people, it usually comes back to bite you in the butt. Case in point...

My bank conveniently built a branch with an ATM and a drive thru right around the corner from my house.

What made this especially nice was the fact that the post office moved its west branch to this same location with an access drive between the two businesses.

Several times a week, I would drop off my packages at the post office and cross the drive to make a deposit for work at the bank’s drive thru window.

Then one day, this happened.

My bank built a barricade across the opening that leads out to the post office. Now cars have to pull out onto a busy four lane road and go around the corner to get from one location to the other. I’m guessing the reasoning for the barricade was to keep non-bank traffic from cutting through their parking lot. I might have suggested using a speed bump instead of this unsightly wall of metal.

When I politely voiced my displeasure at having to pull out into traffic to frequent both locations, I was met with the sound of crickets chirping. They really could have cared less. Needless to say, I no longer use the branch of my bank that is conveniently located around the corner from my house. Instead I use the branch around the corner from my work and the post office down the street from it. I would have changed banks altogether, but I didn’t want to go through the hassle. I have so many payments like utilities coming directly out of my account, that it would have been a really big deal to change everything. Plus it’s the bank we use at work. There certainly are plenty of other banks to choose from though. It seems like on every empty lot in this town, a bank is being built. Which is weird to me because I do most of my personal banking online now. Isn’t this the trend? Do we need this many new bank buildings?

Okay, so now on to Karma...

A new business went in next door to the bank. I watched as an ugly tin strip mall was being built about a foot from the property line. I chuckled to myself when I saw that it extended out closer to the street than the bank; thus blocking anyone from seeing the bank when driving from the south. We have an new city ordinance that requires all new tin structures to be clad with a stone or brick facade; it just makes them look a lot more presentable. Well, this new strip mall faces sideways on the lot, so the brick facade on the front of the building is on the opposite side from the bank. Here’s what the bank employees see now out of their massive glass windows and doors.

 

Yep, the back of a tin strip mall. Hey, at least they built a fence back there. I guess it’s really mean of me to find this so amusing, but I do. However the part of the strip mall that sticks out past the front of the bank does seem to be circumventing the city's facade ordinance in my opinion.

The strip mall is now home to a new video store, which is also strange to me. Do people still go to video stores? I thought ordering or downloading movies online was the wave of the future.

And why is it still called a video store and not a dvd store?

Oh, by the way the "video store" has two openings onto the access drive that leads to the post office. This makes the bank look even more ridiculous and vindictive.

     

"Mr. Bank President, tear down this wall!"