This Sunday, per usual, I had plenty of laundry and grading to do. But I needed a break, so I dashed away to spend an afternoon hour at Philbrook Museum in Tulsa, strolling through the gardens with my camera.
Philbrook Gardens (click image for slideshow)
Greenleaf Lake (click image for slideshow)
A Sunday with a high around 70 lured Wendy and me 111 miles southeast to Greenleaf State Park to hike the first portion of the hiking trail there. On our way south we stopped in Tulsa for lunch at the Texas Roadhouse and to buy books at Gardner’s.
Instead of parking along the abandoned road east of the Highway 10 bridge, as I’d done previously, we started out from the official trailhead in the state park, making our way south and west through the woods to the old dam and spillway, where we enjoyed a snack and posed for a pic.
Then we crossed the Highway 10 bridge, disgusted by the armadillo road kill strewn about. The trail blazes are fading out, so we had to scrounge a bit along the abandoned roads east of the bridge to find the trail leading along the lake shore over to the swinging bridge, where the side fence was covered with spider strands, flung out in the breeze.
Swinging Bridge
Wendy is still getting used to longer hikes, so we turned around at that point, making our way back across the bridge. I couldn’t resist giving the old bridge a good shake while she was mid-span…what a stinker! We found some variety by diverging onto an old road for part of the return journey and ended up hiking 5.25 miles, the longest day hike for Wendy thus far and closing in on my typical day hike of 6 to 7 miles.
Back at the park, we admired deer and turkeys snacking and strutting their way across the grass near the marina. It was great to be hiking in autumn weather, even if the colors have yet to turn.
Weary but happy, we made our way back home, stopping along the way for a delicious and well-earned dinner at El Chico.
Cleveland Trail Daytrip (click map for slideshow)
A week after the autumnal equinox, Wendy and I decided to take advantage of seasonal weather for our first out-of-town hike since we hiked in Colorado in mid-July. It rained three inches the day before, so I quested for a unfamiliar paved trail in the region and decided that a stretch of the old Katy Railroad south of Cleveland, Oklahoma would be suitable. We could drive west and south through the Osage Hills to visit Hominy and Cleveland and then loop by downtown Tulsa for dinner, completing a 135 mile loop.
We drove 50 miles to Hominy, best known to me for its old empty buildings adorned with aging murals by Cha’ Tullis, along with metal silhouettes up on the hillside. We stopped at the historic Drummond home for a guided tour with manager Beverly Whitcomb. She was charming and showed off the 1905 abode, which has many of the original furnishings.
We then drove another 11 miles south through Cleveland to park near the Cedar Creek Apartments along the abandoned Katy railroad right-of-way to hike the asphalt trail eastward toward the Arkansas River and the northwest end of Lake Keystone. It was odd to see power line towers atop concrete pillars in the pool near Cedar Creek. Birds were lined up on a concrete ridge jutting out of the water.
Railroad Bridge
Up ahead we spied the white stone marking the official end of the trail, with a couple wandering about down there. They crossed the Arkansas on the old railroad bridge ahead of us, fishing poles in hand. Wendy did not want to traipse across the softening ties with their treacherous gaps, so I proceeded alone about 1000 feet across the long aging bridge to the far side.
I passed high above a couple of fishermen, laughing by the shore of the Arkansas. The crossing was made more interesting by a missing tie with spiderwebs spanning the gap. There was some fire damage along the bridge, and the eastern end lacked ties, so I had to finish atop a metal side beam.
Walking the Ties
I gazed back across the long bridge, Wendy lost to sight at the far end. I spied the couple who had crossed ahead of me down by the riverside, preparing to fish. I then recrossed the long bridge, glad to reach the western end where Wendy awaited me, proferring a water bottle. We returned to the car, sweaty but glad of our exercise.
We drove 33 miles southeast for a tasty dinner at the Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Tulsa’s Brady District, afterward enjoying a free concert of Jamaican ska by The Skatalites at the adjacent Guthrie Green, a welcome conclusion to our day trip.
Has Bond ever been this beautiful?
This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst again
There’s still life in the old boy.
The Skyfall Blu Ray disc sat beside the television set for two months, as I was unaware until tonight that it was the best Bond film in decades. Daniel Craig revived the James Bond franchise back in 2006 with a very serious take on Casino Royale, the Ian Fleming novel which got away from Broccoli and was a spoof back before I was potty trained. While it was invigorating to have a more vulnerable and gritty Bond, I found the film’s plot murky and the subsequent Quantum of Solace in 2008 a violent disappointment. So I didn’t make it to the cinema for Skyfall and took my sweet time about watching it on disc. But when I finally popped it in the player, I was in for a treat.
But I struggled with the Blu Ray disc, which wanted to bore me with mandatory previews and, of all things, a ludicrous commercial about Blu Ray disc features. Hey Columbia, disabling the menu and skip commands during previews and other unwanted junk is hardly a selling point for Blu Ray, especially when the disc lacks even rudimentary features like a director’s commentary and behind-the-scenes documentary. I finally had to resort to fast-forwarding through one piece of junk after another to get to the movie.
I was even more annoyed by a disc error which rendered a few minutes of the movie unwatchable. As I wrestled with the technology, I wished Hollywood would stop gouging me and put this film, which premiered almost a year ago, on the streaming services. Even better, throw in an option to stream a commentary and related documentaries. Eventually the physical discs will die out as bandwidth improves and younger viewers refuse to use optical media. But those days are not here yet.
Beautiful backdrop for assassin vs. assassin
One reason I still tolerate Blu Ray is the image quality, and thankfully Eon Production’s 23rd Bond film takes full advantage of it. Sam Mendes’ direction was superb and he made the most of a couple of visually stunning nighttime set pieces in Shanghai and an imagined Macao. Ridley Scott’s Los Angeles of Blade Runner has come to life, but 6500 miles to the west.
Blade Runner’s Los Angeles has appeared 6500 miles to the west in Skyfall’s Shangai
Early Bond films had legendary theme songs and titles, and Adele’s entry for Skyfall is top notch, married to a great title sequence which gives nods to some of Mendes’ most beautiful imagery. I hadn’t enjoyed a Bond title sequence so much since Goldeneye back in 1995, with its wonderful imagery of the collapse of Soviet Russia and its iconography.
Even better, the film gave some meaningful back story for Bond and was a great final bow for Judi Dench’s groundbreaking portrayal of M, with excellent supporting work from Ralph Fiennes and the grand old Albert Finney. The villain had some great scenes, and the film was replete with homages to the past 50 years of the franchise without seeming stale or too campy.
But what I enjoyed most was the melancholy air about the film, its bleak portrayal of a Bond whose vices and age are catching up with him. I have been feeling my age this week, having aggravated my problematic lower back, and the film’s references to 50 years of Bond films reminded me that I’ll be 50 myself in a few years. Strangely enough, the rather bleak Skyfall gives me hope: it reminds me that there is still quite a bit of fight left in us both.
“Skyfall”
This is the end
Hold your breath and count to ten
Feel the earth move and then
Hear my heart burst againFor this is the end
I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment
So overdue I owe them
Swept away, I’m stolenLet the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall
Face it all together
At skyfall
That skyfallSkyfall is where we start
A thousand miles and poles apart
Where worlds collide and days are dark
You may have my number, you can take my name
But you’ll never have my heartLet the sky fall (let the sky fall)
When it crumbles (when it crumbles)
We will stand tall (we will stand tall)
Face it all togetherLet the sky fall (let the sky fall)
When it crumbles (when it crumbles)
We will stand tall (we will stand tall)
Face it all together
At skyfall(Let the sky fall
When it crumbles
We will stand tall)Where you go I go
What you see I see
I know I’d never be me
Without the security
Of your loving arms
Keeping me from harm
Put your hand in my hand
And we’ll standLet the sky fall (let the sky fall)
When it crumbles (when it crumbles)
We will stand tall (we will stand tall)
Face it all togetherLet the sky fall (let the sky fall)
When it crumbles (when it crumbles)
We will stand tall (we will stand tall)
Face it all together
At skyfallLet the sky fall
We will stand tall
At skyfall
Oh
Wendy and I were weary from a week of work, so we withdrew to Wichita. She has been buried in Individualized Education Programs and other processes for her special education students, while for me Tuesday night was the culmination of years of committee work with a successful school bond election to finally address our secondary school facility needs.
Wichita Day Trip (click image for slideshow)
We Finally Passed a Bond Issue for Secondary School Facilities
Campaigners after the successful bond election
Election night was more a moment of relief than exultation for me. I liked the February 2012 bond issue plan better, but it was rejected by the voters. So I worked hard to help get a stop-gap bond passed in August 2012 to meet the district’s basic capital needs for seven years.
Months more of committee work with dozens of dedicated community leaders would craft a new proposal for the secondary schools. But after enduring many years of construction at Bartlesville High School, I didn’t look forward to more years of work to expand it to add freshmen and sophomores. However, unlike our dysfunctional Congress, I know that compromise is how we get things done. So, despite my distaste for doubling the size of the student body at our site, I created a fresh bruinbond.com website about the bond issue, drafted and edited the flyer with help from the campaign subcommittee, and created the slideshow which other volunteers used in community presentations. All of the work by dozens of individual volunteers paid off with a landslide vote of approval…which means my work on this project will continue through at least two more years of planning and construction, with the first transition committee meeting coming a week after the election.
Whither Wichita?
So, like Wendy, I truly needed a break from Bartlesville. She had loved the Poco Pollo Magnifico at Jose Pepper’s in Wichita when we were returning from Colorado in late July, while I knew we could enjoy strolling through a couple of the cow town’s museums.
Magnificent Little Chicken
Caterpillar in Rose
Jose Pepper’s east side location was our first stop, with Wendy examining the rose bush outside. She was alerting on the symptoms of the rose rosette virus, while I admired a caterpillar nestled in one of the blooms. Inside the restaurant, she enjoyed her magnificent little chicken while I enjoyed the tasty steak fajitas. Then we headed to Old Town for the Museum of World Treasures.
The Museum of World Treasures
What am I going to do with all of this hair?
I had discovered this odd trove when my colleague Betty Henderson and I visited Wichita in June 2009. It is an assemblage of collections, arising from the artifacts collected by Dr. Jon and Lorna Kardatzke. So it has everything from dinosaur skeletons to Egyptian mummies to Roman coins to autographs from every President, uniforms from various wars, and so forth. I cracked Wendy up when I commented that the owner of one Egyptian coffin must have wondered, “What am I going to do with all of this hair?”
We spent a few hours perusing the collection, apprehended a couple of times by an enthusiastic docent who showed us a Christmas card from Hitler and told us about a Civil War night attack which was foiled by donkeys.
Wichita Art Museum
By the time we left the museum, it was 4 p.m. Most of the city attractions close at 5 p.m. on Saturdays. So we drove over to the nearby Wichita Art Museum, pleasantly surprised that admission is free on Saturdays, and saw what we could before they closed.
Complementary pieces
Wendy liked James Penney’s Industrial Structures; I liked how they complemented it with the nearby sculpture Space Densities by Ibram Lassaw. She also enjoyed delving into the dark complexities in George Grosz’s The Pit.
Lately I find myself often preferring sculptures to paintings, and I was taken with Hiram Powers’ Ginevra.
Ginevra
The Old Mill Tasty Shop
We headed back to Old Town for dinner at The Old Mill Tasty Shop, which has operated for over 80 years. Wendy enjoyed her Seafood Crab Salad with their homemade dressing, while I feasted on BBQ beef brisket on rye. The soda fountain meant she simply had to order a chocolate soda, while I had a chocolate shake.
We zigzagged our way home across southeastern Kansas, pausing along the highway when the clouds briefly parted to admit a red sunset shining through the guy wires of a cell tower. This day trip was sorely needed by us both, and will help us make it through another work week.
Meador Manor 