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.
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.
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 again
For this is the end
I’ve drowned and dreamt this moment
So overdue I owe them
Swept away, I’m stolen
Let 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 skyfall
Skyfall 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 stand
Let 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
Let 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
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
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, unlikeour 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 freshbruinbond.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.
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.
A bright blue flash and a POP! greeted me when I flipped the switch in the utility room this morning, followed by a dimmer light than normal. Yes, one of two 60 watt incandescent bulbs in the ceiling fixture blew out. I screwed in one of my newer compact fluorescent (CFL) replacements, and was appalled by the dim, sickly green color it started out with. I knew that if I waited 30 seconds or so, it would brighten up and look okay. I have tolerated crummy CFL bulb start-ups in my home office, since they eliminated a problem with short-lived bulbs. But I hate their start-up behavior when used in a bathroom, closet, or utility room where I want instant, warm, and bright light.
I could have just screwed in a traditional bulb, since a few weeks ago I bought a dozen of the old-style long-life 60 watt soft-white incandescent bulbs. I had done so as a cheap precaution, since they only cost 56 cents each and I knew that they would be phased out in 2014, along with traditional 40 watt bulbs. The traditional 75 and 100 watt bulbs are already history. The phase out makes sense, given that compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs are four times more efficient and some light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs are more efficient still.
General Electric, which dates back to Thomas Edison himself, responded to the legal ban on inefficient lighting by producing slightly more efficient incandescent bulbs to squeeze under the new efficiency bar. For example, they now offer a substitute for the traditional 60 watt bulb: a 43 watt bulb which produces 750 lumens, for about 17.4 lumens/watt versus 13 lumens/watt in a traditional long-life bulb. But that still pales in comparison to CFL and LED bulb efficiencies. Halogen bulbs are also still around, offering greater efficiency and longer life than traditional incandescents, but they run very hot and don’t approach CFL or LED efficiencies.
So rather than screw in another old-style bulb from my stash, I decided to think long-term and see if I could buy some bulbs which immediately produced a nice light, were far more efficient, and would last for decades, making their high up-front purchase price quite reasonable for a person who plans to keep using them for the long haul.
I’ve had mixed luck with CFL bulbs. My early purchases, such as the triple U-tube 15 watt GE CFL bulb pictured here, were too long for some fixtures, not dimmable, and produced low, off-color light for a minute or more after being turned on. But the spiral Ecosmart CFL bulbs from Home Depot, which Consumer Reports recommended a few years back, are much more compact and brighten up faster, although they are still not dimmable. They run much cooler and eliminated the problem in my office ceiling fixture of frequent bulb burn-outs.
LED bulbs have taken a long time to mature, but I already use two nice Philips Ambient LED 8 watt bulbs in a living room table lamp as replacements for 40 watt incandescents. They look a bit strange if you peer under the shade, with their triple yellow lenses and large metal heat sink, but they produce a warm color of light and are dimmable. They are four times more efficient than an incandescent bulb, but the sticker shock is that each bulb cost over $20!
That might sound crazy, but you have to bear in mind that they last over 12 times longer than a long-life incandescent bulb. That’s about three times the capital cost per hour, but their operating cost is four times less. So they still pay for themselves if you use them long enough, and I won’t have to replace them for decades to come.
I looked into buying some 60-watt-equivalent Philips Ambient LED bulbs, but they are not cleared for enclosed fixtures. Then I remembered that Cree recently began selling relatively cheap LED bulbs at Home Depot. The bulbs have received great reviews and the company was featured in Forbes. Their 9.5 watt warm-white LED bulbs are $13 each, so their capital cost per hour over their lifetime is only about twice that of long-life incandescent bulbs. They are even more efficient than CFLs, with an operating cost that is almost six times less than long-life incandescent bulbs. So, if I use them for a couple of decades, my annual operating cost for them is cheaper than for any of my previous bulbs. I dropped in at Home Depot and purchased six of the suckers.
Here are the specs on each of the bulbs pictured above, which all produce warm 2700 kelvin light:
Bulb:
GE incandescent
GE CFL
Ecosmart CFL
Philips LED
Cree LED
Power (watts)
60.0
15.0
14.0
8.0
9.5
Luminous Flux (lumens)
780
900
900
470
800
Luminous Flux/Power (lumens/watt)
13
60
64
59
84
Bulb Life (hours)
2,000
12,000
10,000
25,000
25,000
Purchase Price
$0.56
N/A
$1.25
$20.69
$12.97
Capital Cost/Year*
$0.31
N/A
$0.14
$0.92
$0.57
Annual Operating Cost**
$7.23
$1.81
$1.69
$0.96
$1.15
Total Annual Cost
$7.54
N/A
$1.83
$1.88
$1.72
*Purchase price divided by hours of life times 3 hours per day times 365.25 days per year
**Based on 3 hours per day at 11 cents per kilowatt*hour
If you decide to purchase the Cree bulbs at Home Depot as a replacement for traditional soft-white incandescents, check that you are getting the warm-white bulbs, which have a color temperature of 2700 kelvin. They have similarly-packaged and slightly cheaper Daylight bulbs which, at 5000 kelvin, produce a harsher bluer light similar to that of fluorescent lighting in commercial buildings and schools.
I screwed in the new Cree bulbs in my utility room and was rewarded with instant, warm, bright light. I don’t plan on purchasing another CFL bulb for home, ever. For now I’ll still use incandescent bulbs in a few decorative light fixtures where the glass is clear to show the glowing filament. But for everything else it will be LED for me.
10/6/2013 UPDATE: A month after I published this post, Cree released a new TW Series of 2700 kelvin LED bulbs which have an improved Color Rendering Index. Today I ordered 12 of them from Home Depot for free delivery to my home, enough to replace all of the remaining 60 watt incandescent bulbs at Meador Manor. I’m going to purchase one of their LED spotlights for my kitchen. I look forward to the day they offer 100-watt-equivalent bulbs to replace the incandescents in my bathrooms, closet, and garage.
1/14/2018 UPDATE: Over the following four years, many of the first generation of Cree bulbs I purchased died, especially in a fixture that had three of them. I would guess the heat got to them. The second-generation ones did better, and now we have a mix of various brands in the Manor. Here’s a nice video teardown of a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb, which is dimmable and rated for enclosed fixtures, with a decent 3000 kelvin color temperature, which has been sold for only $1 at some Dollar Tree stores:
Meador Manor 