CycleDog

Wednesday musette

2012-01-25T21:30:00.002-06:00

I'm taking niacin to reduce my cholesterol. It's only 100 milligrams, but I bought the regular niacin not the 'no-flush' pills. I took one this morning just before leaving for work. Within a few minutes, my face and ears were uncomfortably warm almost as if I were blushing deeply. Not that I've had occasion to blush, of course, but I'm told that's what it feels like.

When I went outside to get into the car, the temperature was about 25F. It felt good! My ears were warm!

Maybe that could be the cycling tip of the day with some caveats. If your head and ears get cold, take some niacin. The problem, though, is that when the skin is red and flushed, it's because the body is pushing blood to the surface. This causes rapid heat loss.

...

Since I can't have beef, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed has been making veggie burgers for me. The texture and flavor are very close to the real thing, and I'm particularly fond of the southwest style burgers. They have a bit of added spice. The only problem is that they're made from beans. I can eat one without problems, but two.....

One morning after I'd over indulged in burgers the previous evening, mother and daughter were talking in the kitchen while I made coffee. "You tooted all night long," She said. "Once, you were so loud you woke yourself up, sat up in the bed, and said 'What was that! What was that!"

"I don't remember waking up," I said.

"I told you to go back to sleep," she replied, "and I told you to stay on your side of the bed!"

Number One Daughter was giggling so much she nearly dropped her coffee.

...

I went in to see my doctor for the annual checkup. He renewed my prescription for blood pressure meds, went through the ritual of poking and prodding, and wrote up an order for some of the usual lab work. Basically, I'm good for another 50,000 miles.

I asked him about getting back onto my bike and if he had any recommendations or cautions because my knee is still hurting. "Don't over do it," he said, "and back off if it hurts."

Now, I've started from zero a few times before, and I know how hard it is to get started. Even short rides can be difficult, and I already know it's gonna hurt. There's a difference between 'good' hurt and 'bad' hurt, but I wasn't going to try to explain that to the doc or he'd probably refer me to a shrink.

Waffles

2012-01-21T17:40:00.002-06:00

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed fumbled our ancient and venerable Belgian waffle maker onto the floor earlier this week. The impact broke it in half. The hinge cracked and the only parts holding top and bottom together were the wires. It probably wouldn't have been safe to use it.

Naturally, I was not informed of this at the time. But since I'm the breakfast guy here in Castle CycleDog, responsible for pancakes, waffles, crepes, French toast and a variety of eggs, a new waffle iron was definitely needed. Mother and daughter went off on a shopping expedition to track down another one.

The old one was a round model from Black and Decker. They market it as a Belgian waffle maker, but it's so difficult to find real Belgians here in Oklahoma. All I can find are the cheap, imported ones from Mexico or Singapore. I've been reading about 'real' Belgian waffles, though, and I found that what we regard as breakfast food is more a snack over there.

First, Belgian waffles are largely divided into two types: Liege waffles and Brussels waffles. Both use yeast rather than baking powder to raise the batter. Liege waffles (according to one of the foodies) are heavier and dough-like, and they include some pearl sugar just before cooking that carmelizes on the surface. Sounds yummy.

And yes, it's that Liege. The same as Liege-Bastogne-Liege. Hard men. The Koppenberg. Hell of the North. It's the season for all that, with high winds, slimy cobblestones, incredibly steep hills, and the Spring Classics. The big tours may offer the planning, strategy, and tactics of a military campaign, but the Classics are a rowdy bar fight.

But let's get back to waffles. This new iron seems to run hotter than the old one as the waffles are coming out much crispier. I like that. Number One Daughter opined that they'll go better with ice cream, though in truth, everything is better with ice cream as far as she's concerned. Besides, she won't be the one making the waffles.

The only thing that bothers me is that waffle batter takes a lot of cooking oil. That's a bunch of calories. One recipe recommended substituting melted butter instead. I tried it once - just once - and I can say that adding a quarter stick of butter improves the batter tremendously. But outside of special occasions, I won't do that again. I'm thinking about substituting olive oil, making a kind of Italian/Belgian waffle.

Tomorrow morning, I'm planning to make crepes with fried apples and whipped cream. Stop by the castle if you're hungry!

The sheer badness of comfort food

2012-01-14T19:19:00.003-06:00

So sweet they make your teeth hurt.

Yes, it's a high dynamic range photo of a sack of Zingers. I love Zingers. They're the perfect compliment to a cup of strong, black coffee. Besides, I need the hot liquid to get all the sugar off my teeth.

A lot of people were saddened by this week's news of the bankruptcy at Hostess, the maker of Twinkies. If they go off the market, all the references to them in Zombieland will be dated. I've never been a big fan of Twinkies, preferring Zingers or even Tastykakes.

The only problem with Zingers is they won't survive in a jersey pocket like an energy bar. They're reduced to mush. I've carried hot coffee in a stainless steel water bottle for years, but there's no energy bar that compares to a Zinger. I don't care whether it's good for me. I don't want anti-oxidants, glucosamine, organically grown free range wheat, or soy milk. What the hell is soy milk anyway? I have yet to see a plant equipped with teats. I want gooey chocolaty goodness...and preservatives...lots of preservatives. At my age, it's a good idea.

An awful week

2012-01-12T20:27:00.002-06:00

It began with the realization that our two senior cats, Patches and Mittens, would have to be put to sleep. They were eighteen and nineteen, respectively. Both were losing weight and becoming incontinent. Mittens had arthritis and frequently stumbled while trying to walk. It was time. Putting them down would be a kindness.

Then Jordan found a job working for a marketing company in Tulsa. It lasted three days until he found out that his normal work week would have only one day off, and he couldn't have flexible hours in order to go to night classes. He didn't like some of their less than ethical practices. He told them he was quitting on Friday afternoon, and called me to see that it was OK that he do so.

Shortly after talking to him, my phone rang again. Mary was sobbing and I couldn't understand what she said at first. When she calmed a little, she told me her brother had just died.

Danny was 47 years old when he died in his sleep. He hadn't been healthy for quite a while. As a teenager, he was seriously injured while cutting down a tree with a chainsaw. The tree split unexpectedly, hit him in the head and nearly killed him. He endured the after effects from it for the rest of his life.

Dan wasn't perfect. He suffered from depression, drank too much, and had trouble holding a job. Yet his funeral service was so crowded it was standing room only. He touched other lives in ways he never realized. The family discovered just how much effect he'd had when the funeral director told them an anonymous donor covered the entire expense. Dan left behind his son, Jimmy, his step-daughter, Christa, and his former spouse, Debbie. He'll be missed.

Note to self....

2011-12-21T10:52:00.003-06:00

This is a photo of Lon Haldeman addressing the Oklahoma Bike Summit back in November. See the strong reflections in the shadows? Look carefully at the back of the gray shirt on the left and the black shirt of the guy in the center. This room was backlit by those curtains up front. Sunlight hit them and diffused through the room. This shot was one of the worst examples.

It disturbed me that the lens had this much internal reflection, but I didn't think it through until recently. I shot some neighbors Christmas decorations at night, and the reflection was so strong it appeared like a second set of lights! I tossed those shots away.

Light bounces around in a camera lens. Some passes through to the image sensor or film, but some small portion of it is reflected by all those glass surfaces. Most of them are coated to prevent this. That's the orange or blue stuff on the glass. Then it struck me - the UV filter I'm using isn't coated at all! In that test shot of a candle, a ghost image of the flames is hovering just above the top of the P.

Here's the same shot without the UV filter. Viola! No ghost image! Normally, I'd leave the filter in place because I can clean it with a handkerchief or even my t-shirt. I wouldn't do that to the front element of the lens. But I'll have to remember to remove the filter in those low-light situations or strong back light situations.

Learn from my mistakes!

Route 66 railroad exhibit

2011-12-16T20:16:00.004-06:00

Jordan and I were out doing some Christmas shopping earlier this week. We found some gifts for mom and daughter, but while we were out, I decided to stop to show him this old locomotive that had been quietly rusting away in the rail yard here in Owasso. It's being restored at a site west of Tulsa near Red Fork along with an old Pullman car, a tanker, and a caboose. Eventually the site will be a transportation museum.

It will take a lot of time and money to fully restore this Pullman. It was damaged when an adjoining car was set afire by vandals, and time has not been kind. This is the kitchen. It's roughly the size of my daughter's closet, big enough for two people to stand if they're careful with knives and elbows.

This was the dining area. Small tables and chaired lined either side, and that area at the back was the sun room. All the windows were broken by vandals. They're covered temporarily with plywood and high-impact plastic sheets. The volunteer workers said they'd found a cache of brass fittings for all the windows and doors, but as brass is so expensive they were reluctant to attach the hardware. It's certainly possible to reproduce that with a 3D printer, so that may be a better alternative.

Golden oldie

2011-12-14T10:33:00.003-06:00

I'm cleaning out my desk in the living room. In the bottom of a drawer under a pile of old tech manuals, I found a stack of cartoons from the Phantom Cartoonist!

2011-12-06T20:10:00.002-06:00

Circuit board detail

Here's something that has been giving me grief. I had a computer come into the shop on multiple occasions with related failures, most originating with the power supply. It would cycle power on and off rapidly, flashing the front panel lights just like a Christmas tree. Now, I'm OK with festive and all, but an aircraft computer isn't supposed to do festive.

Replacing the usual suspects didn't help. There are four big electrolytic capacitors on the power supply board, and they're usually responsible for these problems. I replaced the three easy ones, but the largest is a 1.1 farad capacitor (think BIG!) and it's held tightly by a large piece of foam tape. To remove it, I heat the board to 140F in an industrial oven, and then twist the cap off the board with a huge pair of Channelocks. It's a PITA.

But there's one other component that causes power supply cycling, and that's the pulse width modulator chip. In a nutshell, a computer power supply is closely regulated by the PWM chip. It compares the output voltage against a reference, and alters the current on the input to control the voltage on the output. It switches on and off at a rate just above audio frequencies.

The chip is more readily changed than that big capacitor, so I decided to do it first. Yes, I'm basically a lazy technician taking the path of least resistance. I cut two of the chip's eight leads - and the chip fell off the board! That's a photo of the board and pads up above. The solder didn't wet to the pads. Notice the dull copper that indicates some tarnish and corrosion.

I applied flux and tinned the pads before installing the new chip. In the morning, I'll investigate the surrounding circuitry for any loose connections similar to this one. Chances are, the board was contaminated when the chip was first installed. Nearby ones may be contaminated too.

This may seem a small thing, but finding and eliminating an intermittent is cause for celebration.

I wanna be delusional for Christmas!

2011-11-28T20:49:00.003-06:00

"for janis" by sheeshoo on Flickr

I'm watching the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants on Monday Night Football, and I find that my lust for a shiny new car under a huge red bow is increasing faster than the point count. Apparently, Lexus would have us believe that car payments and insurance premiums are the perfect Christmas gift. They may not be wrong. I can think of a couple of people I'd like to give one of these cars to over the holidays, provided I could stick them with the payments.

As for myself, I don't have to worry about finding a new car in the driveway on Christmas morning. It seems I ate the last of the left over black olives, a despicable act that I carried out without asking permission of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. I didn't know when I married her that she's Italian by way of Ireland, which makes for occasional unpredictable displays of short temper. Squared.

I did have the temerity to ask for a new bike. It didn't go well.

ISO bracketing with the Olympus Pen

2011-11-27T17:53:00.005-06:00

John Neel has an interesting piece on Pixiq about using the ISO bracketing feature in the Olympus Pen cameras. I'm using an E-PL2 and learning something new almost every time it's in my hands.

Neel pointed out that unlike many other digital cameras, the Pen can take a single RAW image, then automatically make three JPEGs with as much as 1 stop of over and under exposure. Assuming the original is properly exposed, the three images can be combined for a high dynamic range photo, or the RAW files can be processed for an even wider exposure latitude. One big advantage is that this process can be used for action shots unlike some other exposure bracketing methods since it relies on a single shot, not consecutive ones.

Now, that Camaro Z28 up above is an HDR image from a single RAW file. Believe me, the car is pretty ratty and the photo makes it look better than it is. I made one JPEG that was 3 stops over exposed in order to get some shadow detail. The under exposure was just one stop. I tried to keep it looking natural rather than cartoonish.

This is a DC-10 that's being stripped at Tulsa International. I worked on DC-10 avionics for years but never managed to ride on one. Chances are I never will. This image is cartoonish, and shows what happens when being overly-enthusiastic while playing with the HDR sliders. Still, I like it for the stark look of an airliner on its way to the graveyard.

I haven't forgotten my old rangefinder cameras, though I'll admit to using the Olympus Pen almost exclusively for a while. But I just finished running a roll through the Konica Auto S2, and started another one in the Canon Canonet. Also, I was surprised to find there's a roll in the Nikon N6006, so it went back into my camera bag to be used in the following couple of weeks. The Konica photos should be ready tomorrow.

Apache Street

2011-11-15T21:07:00.003-06:00

Apache Street east of Tulsa is where old cars go to die. It's a treasure trove of rusting old heaps, lined on both sides with wrecking yards. Most of the cars are fairly recent, but some few are the ones I'd like to photograph. One problem exists, and that's the presence of some very large, very long-toothed dogs that prowl the lots. I did not get out of the car anywhere near them!

I'm going to go down there some Saturday to talk with the lot owners. Maybe I can get some photos.

Op-ed: The Oklahoma Bike Summit

2011-11-08T21:01:00.005-06:00

Here's what I wrote yesterday about the Oklahoma Bike Summit:

Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, addressed the meeting after lunch. Clarke is an engaging speaker and covered a wide range of bicycling-related topics. He spoke of Copenhagen, where the average number of commuting cyclists would be considered a huge turnout for any North American tour. Clarke brought out the 'safety in numbers' argument, which seems to indicate that increasing numbers of bicyclists do not lead to a proportional increase in bicycle crashes. He said, “We need complete systems, not just infrastructure.” That includes promotion, marketing, and education.

Clarke was concerned over the possible loss of transportation enhancement funds due to the political wrangling in Washington. He strongly advised those present to contact their senators and congressmen. “It's all about showing up,” he said, referring to the political adage that policy is set by those who make an effort to attend meetings.

When asked about the Reed Bates case in which a cyclist was arrested and jailed for riding on a public roadway, Clarke said, “His case was a disaster waiting to happen. It would not have set a precedent. He was not a sympathetic character.” Clarke defended the League's record regarding challenges to cyclist's rights by saying, “We have been involved in a number of such cases over the last several years.”

There was much more, of course, and most of it was omitted for the sake of brevity. I'll say this for Clarke, he's an excellent speaker. He pushed all the usual buttons: Copenhagen, safety in numbers, 'normal' cyclists, trip distances, bike sharing, and a statistic saying that a single traffic fatality has a $6 million cost. Clarke is concerned over the possible loss of transportation enhancement funds in the coming fiscal year, and like other cycling insiders, he seems to be concerned about demographics.

Demographics cut to the heart of cycling advocacy. Bikes Belong has a demographics report on the website detailing many items of interest to cyclists. The bar graph showing the age distribution of survey respondents caught my eye. It indicates that the average age of an 'enthusiast' cyclist is in the mid-forties. Now, please remember that this is a self-selected survey, so the results should not be regarded as representative of the entire population of cyclists, but the last census put the median age at about 37, well under the supposed average age of cyclists. Experienced bike riders are an aging population, and since they're the League's membership, the clock is ticking on an eventual downturn.

In the 1990s, the Amateur Radio Relay League surveyed their members and found that the average age was in the mid-fifties. ARRL pushed for some changes, eliminating Morse code entirely, simplifying the license structure, and updating the technical aspects of their testing to more modern standards in an effort to attract a younger crowd. Should LAB consider similar changes, and if so, what changes should they make?

There are huge, untapped demographics that go largely unnoticed by most of organized cycling; the poor who use bikes for basic transportation, and those young bike riders in their teens and twenties who comprise fully half of all bicyclists. Among the experienced cyclists, roughly half ride for transportation if only occasionally, but the bulk of their rides are for fitness and recreation.

Grist had this to say:“Contrary to popular convention, the biggest share of bicyclists isn't yuppies, it's low income people. In fact, the lowest-earning quarter of Americans make nearly one-third of all bike trips.”

Clarke obliquely touched on this when he said that he wanted cyclists to be 'normal' in the sense that they don't need to ride in dedicated cycling clothing for short trips. Meanwhile, those low income cyclists are already riding – to work and back – in ordinary street clothes. They don't have much disposable income, meaning that they won't consider spending money to join an organization unless it provides some tangible benefits. At present, LAB doesn't do that for existing members, so enormous changes would be demanded if the organization wants to tap this demographic.

Seventy percent of the respondents to Bikes Belong were happy or somewhat happy with existing facilities. The message is that the loss of transportation enhancement money would not have a great impact for them. It would seem natural that LAB would pivot on this and push their education program because it teaches cyclists how to use all streets safely, not just those with bike lanes. Education has been the red-headed step child at LAB for quite some time. It would be a heartening change to see it given greater emphasis.

2011-11-07T20:36:00.004-06:00

Andy Clarke addressing the summit.

Oklahoma had its first bike summit over the weekend at the Chesapeake Boathouse in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma Bicycling Coalition organized the event.

Lon Haldeman, famed ultra-cyclist and the operator of the PacTours bicycle touring company, talked on the history and allure of historic Route 66 through Oklahoma. This state has more remaining miles of the original road alignments than any other state, drawing tourists from all over the world. This historic highway had tourist amenities roughly 20 miles apart along its length, a perfect distance for bicycle tourists. Additionally, other states have concluded that bicycling tourists spend as much as their motoring counterparts, yet they spend in a more confined area.

When asked, “What can communities do to attract cyclists?” Haldeman replied that two things help greatly: roadways free of drainage grates that cause diversion falls, and adequate signage to inform and direct cyclists along city streets. He mentioned that much of the signage for both historic Route 66 and cyclists has been vandalized or removed, and suggested pavement markings as an alternative.

Ginny Sullivan talked about the Adventure Cycling Association whose 44,000 members make it the largest national cycling organization. She said that the goal is to inspire bike travel. With hundreds of volunteers, maps, extensive social media contacts, and a website, Adventure Cycling is trying to attract a younger crowd as the present demographic is aging. One new idea involves bike overnights, simple out and back bike tours that begin and end at home. Sullivan spoke extensively on the economic impact of bike touring, both from the standpoint of a touring cyclist and those communities hoping to attract tourism dollars. Bicycle tourists spend $100 per day on average, and they do so in a relatively small area.

Joy Hancock, the new director of Oklahoma's Freewheel, shared her thoughts about the annual cross-state tour. As yet, no economic study has been done on the tour's impact in the small towns where it makes overnight stops, but she believes it contributes about $25,000 in each community. The first seminar that will detail the 2012 route will be held January 10^th.

Sandy Pantlik, director of travel promotion for the Oklahoma Tourism Department, talked about the Scenic Byways program, bike trails, and the travelok.com website. She noted that the state had bicycling maps at one time, but they are no longer in print. Oklahoma attracts $6.2 billion in tourism spending each year, and bicycling would add to that total. Like Lon Haldeman, she also spoke on the state's close ties with Route 66 and its history. Oklahoma plans to develop Route 66 as a bicycle route, but as yet funding is not available.

The Oklahoma Bicycle Coalition conducted a brief meeting over the lunch break, introducing a bylaw change would allow for new initiatives to be proposed by two or more members and voted on in any meeting. The bylaw change passed unanimously.

This is the text that appears on the Examiner, along with that photo up at the top. Believe me, that huge, back-lit window gave me fits. It overpowered the anti-reflective coatings in both my Olympus lenses, leading to numerous ghost images. I took some photos with the 50 year old Konica Auto S2 also, and it will be interesting to see how they look.

This piece is straight reportage. I'll write an op-ed with my views on the summit in the next couple of days.

Spot the guy on a bike

2011-11-06T20:16:00.003-06:00

There's a guy on a bike - I really hesitate to call him a cyclist - and he's hiding somewhere in this photo. Look closely and you'll notice him at the base of that light pole on the far side of the intersection. Sure enough, he's riding on the sidewalk in dark clothing, and to add a bit of excitement, he's riding against traffic. What are the chances he'll be seen by any turning motorists? Click on the photo for a larger version.

I had a "huh?" moment

2011-10-23T13:45:00.002-05:00

It's true that what we see is profoundly influenced by what we know. In effect, our preconceptions act as a filter to the act of seeing. As evidence, I offer this:

I saw the photo and thought, "Cool bike! I wonder who carries Scott in Tulsa?" Then I read the tab up above. It says, "A Prosthetic Limb That Lets Amputees..."

Huh? It was only then that I realized the rider has a prosthesis.

This received the James Dyson Award, a competition for student design that calls for designs that solve a problem. The prosthesis is capable of the complex motion involved in cycling, and besides, the carbon fiber clearly complements the frame. I have to wonder if they offer titanium or steel models too.

Looking for work...

2011-10-18T18:10:00.002-05:00

No, I haven't lost my job.

I've been writing for Demand Media since last spring, but the number of available titles has dwindled down to nothing. This week, they announced that their top writers would get first dibs on new titles, and those titles wouldn't be available to those of us in the great unwashed for two days. Given that the number of titles has been mostly zero, I expect my writing over there is done.

Oddly, their management people decided on a grammar score of 4.0 (out of 5) as the cut off point. Mine has been at 3.8 since I started. Yes, that's right - I started at 3.8 and it hasn't changed since 2009, which is doubly odd since I actually began writing for them in April this year. Something smells fishy.

Also - and those of you who know me will find this somewhat out of character - I ruffled a few feathers when I called one of their editors an asshole. In his defense, I can say that he had both a natural inclination and a lot of effort going for him. Some people are born assholes while others struggle mightily to attain that status. This one did both. He is to be commended.

While I wasn't kicked out, I did get a sternly worded e-mail warning me to treat their editors with professional decorum, something I will observe scrupulously in the future...unless some twee pontificating little basta.....I get annoyed when someone who doesn't understand the technical aspects of electronic troubleshooting and repair tries to tell me how it should be done. It's kind of like having someone who can't drive attempt to design a superhighway, or someone who doesn't ride a bike trying to design a bike lane. Oh, wait, that latter bit is what we have already. Never mind.

So I'm looking for another writing venue, preferably one that deals in tech issues that are familiar, like soldering, trouble shooting, and computer repair. I'd even write about bicycle repair, but remember, my knowledge is woefully out of date! Besides, when it came to the idiosyncrasies of mid-1970s French bikes, the late Sheldon Brown had it covered.

If any of you can give me a nudge in the right direction, feel free to nudge.

Eduardo Leonardo de Painto

2011-10-17T18:24:00.004-05:00

Yes, that's our mentally challenged cat.
Eventually, he figured out how to get down.

Here's an excellent way to test a knee joint. Climb a ladder. Apply paint to a wall. Climb down. Move the ladder. Climb back up again. Repeat until you're slightly mad. Not the angry kind of mad, but the tin-foil-hat-and-the-aliens-are-out-to-kidnap-me kind of mad. Above all, do not watch football games from atop a ladder.

The living room painting is finished, but much to my dismay, there's a gallon of paint left over. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed pointed out that "we" can use it to paint the hallway, too. Oh, joy!

When I get dehydrated, I get dizzy. Frankly, being atop a long step ladder was slightly intimidating though thankfully the dizziness didn't kick in. I drank lots of water. The left leg cramped at night, something that I've learned to live with over the years, and it didn't seem any worse than usual.

Still, sanity must be maintained, so when I've had a chance to get away for a few hours, I've been taking photos of whatever is interesting. Some examples:

Not all ratty Brit cars come from Texas. Just most of them. Up north, the road salt and the elements have already reduced them to piles of rust with paint flecks.

This is one of the trails at the Oxley Nature Center in Tulsa. This is actually a high dynamic range photo as I tried to get detail in the deep shade and two people approaching. It didn't work, though, because the white areas are way over exposed. Still, I like the boards and leaves.

Whir...click...click...click...click

2011-10-03T10:47:00.003-05:00

That's the sound a starter motor makes when the battery can't deliver enough current to make it turn and the starter solenoid pops in and out. It's a sure sign of a dead battery or a charging system malfunction.

Yesterday, I noticed the interior dome light was yellowish as the car started. Sure, I knew the battery was going bad and would have to be replaced soon, but I was hoping to get through the next day or two since there's much to be done today. Wishful thinking on my part.

I've been painting the living room and it was down to a routine. Climb up the ladder. Paint. Climb down. Move the ladder and climb up again. Repeat endlessly. I tried to watch the Steelers as they lost to Houston, and occasionally shouted at the television from atop the ladder. Two more rules of thumb occurred to me. First, don't wave your arms around while holding a paint brush. Second, don't wave your arms around while standing on a ladder.

All that up and down stuff did a number on my legs. I'm careful about climbing with my bad knee and I always follow the rule I learned from a physical therapist a very long time ago - the good goes up and the bad goes down. It applies equally to stairs, curbs, and ladders. As for the evangelical implications, well, you're on your own. Step up with the good leg, but step down with the bad one. That way the good leg is controlling the motion.

By the end of the afternoon both legs were little more than chunks of wood. I took some aspirin and had a shower. I actually looked forward to returning to work in the morning because it's physically easier than painting. Besides, my crew chief brought in three fresh computers for modifications, meaning I'll be busy all week. It makes the time go quickly.

But in the pre-dawn darkness this morning, my stomach sank when all I could get from the car was that dreaded "whir...click...click...click." Putting the charger on the battery didn't help. I called my friend Wade for a ride to the auto parts store and set about taking the battery out.

Pontiac has an anti-theft device in the radio that is supposed to disable the radio if the power is removed. It gets a code from the car's computer somehow, and if that code is blanked - say, if the radio is stolen - the unit won't work. I learned this the hard way when Number One Daughter's battery died in her car. Our local GM dealer and full-time pirate, wanted $85 to reinstall the code. I pointed out that I could replace the radio with an after market unit for the same price. I had some unkind thoughts about what he could do with that parrot on his shoulder, too.

My own radio was secondary this morning. I had to get the car working again because there are a couple of errands that must be done this afternoon, including a trip to downtown Tulsa. So with Wade's help and a nice check in the hands of the friendly guy at the auto parts store, my car now has a spankin' new battery. I lost only a few pieces of skin and very little blood.

But I've been pondering this question all morning. Whatever happened to those $49.95 car batteries? This new one was more than twice that amount. I turned in the old one to avoid a core charge. That ensures the lead is recycled, right? Basically, then, I'm buying those same lead plates over and over every time I replace a battery! Maybe I can get a better price if I charge them for using MY lead.

Rule of Thumb

2011-09-25T12:16:00.002-05:00

Any product labeled as "unbreakable" should first be tested by young children.

I'm reminded of this every time I use our step stool, a product which carried that "unbreakable" label. One of the pads on the bottom of a leg is broken off, and a cross member is likewise broken. We've had this since we moved into the house, as as "we" are painting just now, I...um, "we"...have cause to use the step stool once again.

The step stool was fine until the kids came along, then it developed these mysterious injuries. No one knows how they happened. It's quite possible that those pesky Libyan terrorists were responsible again. Like ninjas, they sneak in, do some damage and disappear.

2011-09-17T17:28:00.003-05:00

Here's the final Wally Crankset piece for the Red Dirt Pedalers "Wheel Issues." I promise - Wally has not taken his last ride into the sunset!

And for added snark, it's in comic sans.

============

Dear Doctor Crankset:

I'm a security officer attached to a classified government program. Recently, we've had reports that you've been riding a bicycle along our perimeter fence and photographing our facilities, personnel, and equipment.

Dr. Crankset, you are in violation of federal law, specifically those provisions in the renewed Patriot Act that prohibit ordinary Americans like you from prying into the operations of high-value, protected federal sites. Our security personnel have contacted you repeatedly, asking that you cease your activities. You were given a final warning on 10JULY2011 at 0835AM according to our records. We have video and audio files confirming that fact.

Two days later, on 12JULY2011 you appeared on a bicycle at our main gate at 0712AM dressed as an Elvis impersonator, demanding to be allowed entry. Specifically, you told our personnel that you wanted to "re-enter" the facility, and claimed that you were the real Elvis Presley who had been living on the base in secret for many years. The sergeant on duty said there was a strong odor of tequila about you. When he tried to take you into custody, the sequined Elvis costume tore away and you ran off naked into the surrounding woods.

Dr. Crankset, federal authorities have issued a warrant for your arrest. You will be apprehended by a federal, state, or local law enforcement in the near future. But I strongly advise that you turn yourself in as a gesture of good faith. It will go easier on you in court.

Sincerely,

Capt. George L. Tirebiter

Chief of Security

The letter was returned to Capt. Tirebiter with this hastily scrawled message along the top:

Doctor Crankset will not be available in the near future. He is on sabbatical at the Universidad de Guadalahara in Mexico....his secretary.

Wally doesn't have a secretary. Let's hope the Mexican authorities don't have any outstanding warrants on him.

Lanterne Rouge is no more!

2011-09-17T17:19:00.002-05:00

The Red Dirt Pedalers newsletter, Wheel Issues, has ceased publication. Susan Walker was the editor and she has other projects, other irons in the fire that demand her attention. It's been a good, long run, but my column and the publication are gone.

CycleDog originally started as a place to try out ideas for the newsletter, but it evolved as time passed. These days, it's mostly about photos and local information, and I'll stick with much of that. But I need to get back to my roots and include far more cycling stuff here.

Here's the final Lanterne Rouge piece. Wally's last contribution to the newsletter will follow.

===============

Maestro! A drum roll please!

Susan wants something special for this last Wheel Issues. While I have a couple of good ideas, I want to write on a subject more personal.

I want to thank Susan publicly for all she's done in putting Wheel Issues together every month, and more to the point, I thank her for putting up with my occasional erratic behavior, aversion to deadlines, and bouts of navel-gazing. She has a light touch as an editor, something that any writer greatly appreciates. When she makes a suggestion, it's always a good one. Writing for her is a pleasure.

Susan asked me to start a column years ago, just after we'd both finished our League cycling instructor training. I had been writing both serious stuff and comedy for an amateur radio newsletter, and cycling was a good fit. My personal blog, CycleDog, was a laboratory for ideas that eventually ended up here. It's probably no secret that I write both Lanterne Rouge and the Doctor Wally pieces. Wally had his start over on CycleDog, and I expect that like an ingrown toenail, he'll turn up there again. CycleDog has been more about old cameras and photography recently, but that will change soon.

I've told Susan that when the writing goes well, words almost flow from my fingertips into the keyboard. It's magical, and it keeps me coming back again and again, hoping the magic will strike just one more time. Writing and cycling have one thing in common - balance - and finding that balance between work, play, and family is essential.

Finally, I thank all of you for reading - not just my stuff - but all of Wheel Issues. Writers are nothing without readers. You are the other side of the scale, a critical part of the balancing act. I sincerely hope you've enjoyed the journey as much as I have.

Save Our Shirts!

2011-09-06T16:52:00.002-05:00

I'm thinking we need a new charity dedicated to preserving the history and culture of Hawaiian shirts, not that there's much, mind you, but it's an interesting idea nonetheless. Since we've passed Labor Day, the 'full Cleveland' look - which includes those lovely white shoes and belt coupled with a polyester leisure suit - has to be put back in the closet until next summer.

Seriously, I have never owned a leisure suit, white shoes (other than Converse All Stars) nor a white belt. If I ever appeared in public wearing such apparel, I would expect one of you to shoot me immediately to end the misery. I'd consider that merciful.

According to Wikipedia, Hawaiian shirts are considered business wear and are suitable for all but the most formal occasions in Hawaii. We need to promote that on the mainland, too, but if it catches on, I'll have to change my wardrobe.

Tuesday aphorism

2011-09-06T06:12:00.001-05:00

Paraphrasing Ben Franklin on voter ID laws: Is the right to vote inherent in the man or that piece of paper in his hand?

Monday aphorism

2011-09-05T11:04:00.003-05:00

The fastest way to a man's heart is a 45 caliber hollow point through the sternum.

Labor day weekend

2011-09-04T14:55:00.004-05:00

It's a holiday weekend, and true to form, we've had a disaster here at Chateau CycleDog. It's a family tradition to have an injury, sickness, or a minor emergency every holiday and this one is no exception.

I took a vacation day on Friday. Mary and I ran some errands in the afternoon. When we returned home, the air conditioning wasn't working. It was about 100F outside and felt hotter in the house. The house AC didn't work. Nor did the electricity in the kitchen. The dryer motor turned but the heater never came on.

I suspected a bad circuit breaker, so I went out to the garage and reset all the breakers. It didn't help, so I pulled the cover off the breaker box, and began checking the power on each line. Every other line was dead. Naturally, I discovered this after a trip to the hardware store and replacing several breakers on the presumably dead lines.

So I called Wade. He knows high voltage stuff - I don't. But I learned quickly.

He said one of the lines coming into the house was probably bad. There are two hot lines and one ground. If you lose one of the hots, whatever is connected to that side will not work - hence the voltage on every other breaker rather than all of them. Likewise, the dryer works off both sides. Lose one and the motor may work but the heater will not. He came over to check with a voltmeter since I was testing with a simple go/no go detector. Sure enough, one side was dead.

Mary and Lyndsay had left to go shopping...and escape into some air conditioning, no doubt. By the time Wade diagnosed the problem, it was 9PM. I called customer service at PSO, waded through the voice menu system only to be told my problem couldn't be resolved that way, so I'd have to speak with a real person. In short order, a tech was on the way to the house! I expected to be put off until the next day or even next week, but he was here in about 45 minutes.

In a few minutes, he determined that the outside box with the electric meter showed the same problem I'd described - one hot side was dead. He went to the backyard box and found it was good, so the fault lies somewhere in between. The line is broken. So he hooked up a transformer to feed power from the working line over to the dead one. All the lights flicker when the AC turns on, so there's a heavy current load on the transformer.

I am truly grateful that PSO responded so quickly. Mary has great difficulty handling the heat, so going without AC for a couple of days was going to be an ordeal.

My biggest fear was that our ancient and creaky air conditioner had finally given up, but if we're lucky it will see us through this season. It's time for a new one, however, since this one is over 25 years old!

At least this holiday didn't involve any knife wounds, blood all over the kitchen, or similar bodily harm. I'm thankful for the little things.

When you absolutely must...

2011-09-03T14:30:00.004-05:00

...tell the world that you drive like a complete jerk, fasten one of these to your front bumper!

Mary and I were running errands yesterday. We left the neighborhood and started north on the frontage road, a two lane with a 35 mph speed limit. Within half a mile, a guy in a small car was quite nearly in our trunk. He was close enough that I couldn't see his headlights in my rear view mirror. When I slowed to turn into a parking lot, he passed us in the dedicated left turn lane.

Motorists routinely complain about 'arrogant' cyclists taking the lane and how they must feel superior somehow. But when it comes to having a sense of entitlement, a God-given absolute right to drive as fast as they wanna whenever they wanna, it's hard to compare cyclists to motorists like this one.

GTFOMW!

India Festival in Tulsa

2011-08-28T16:22:00.003-05:00

I went to the India Fest in Tulsa yesterday, accompanying my daughter and several of her friends. We arrived shortly before noon, had lunch, and wandered around inside the Pavilion at the Tulsa County Fairground. There were booths showing Indian food and spices, religions, garments, and even industrial prowess.

As we entered, the stage was being prepared for a traditional Indian wedding procession. They invited all of us to join in, but I don't dance so well. Have you ever seen a dancing bear at the circus? They're way better than me.

The photos are over on Flickr.

Also, early yesterday morning, I went downtown for the start of the Oklahoma Steak Cook-off Championship. Now, I can't eat beef, so this was a hardship, believe me. But I took some good HDR photos that I'll post on Flickr later today or tomorrow.

Prepare to be amazed!

2011-08-25T21:44:00.004-05:00

I bought a new Hawaiian shirt! It may be a trifle loud. But it spoke to me from across the room. Well, actually it shouted obscenities like a cheerleader with Tourette's syndrome, so how could I resist?

They should make jerseys like this. In fact, I've considered wearing one while riding on a very hot day because they fit like a tent, ventilate well, and motorists would be utterly convinced that a maniac was loose.

Criterium Photos

2011-08-22T16:28:00.004-05:00

This is the start of the kid's race yesterday. They did one lap of the circuit, and I've seldom seen a more determined bunch of racers.

Tom Selleck's mustache competes for the local Sound Pony team. These guys were relentless in chasing down a lone flyer off the front of the group. They let him cook out there for about half the race before reeling him back.

This is the eventual winner of the Cat 3 race. He was with another rider off the front when, with a little over a lap to go, the other guy punctured. I talked with him after the race. He said he was really looking forward to the sprint.

I took over 400 photos yesterday, but narrowed it down to about 20. They're over on Flickr. If anyone has a specific person of interest, please feel free to contact me about more photos.

Owasso Criterium

2011-08-21T17:24:00.002-05:00

We had the first-ever Owasso bicycle race today. It was a criterium on a figure 8 course around the downtown area. This photo is from the Cat 3 race as a chase group tried and failed to catch the two leaders. They had a half-lap advantage, and it was apparent that they wouldn't be caught. So the finale would be a two-up sprint to the line, but on the next to last lap, we heard the sharp pop and psssssst of a tire going down. Sure enough, it was one of the leaders. The other guy - a member of the Sound Pony team - cruised to victory.

I'll have more photos over the next couple of days. I burned up a bunch of memory and it's will take some time to edit them down. Also, as George suggested, I'm using a Flickr Pro account now, so I'll have more storage. Thanks, George!

Be still my heart!

2011-08-13T17:04:00.004-05:00

I finally broke down and bought a camera made in this century! It's an Olympus Pen E-PL2 with a micro four thirds, 12 megapixel sensor and a 14-42mm kit lens. That's equivalent to 28-84mm in a 35mm format. The maximum aperture is f3.5 at 14mm and it stops down to f22. This camera does everything a DSLR can do, but it's a smaller, lighter package. Still, with the kit lens attached it's not exactly pocketable, but that will change when I get a 17mm prime lens that's much shorter.

This is an HDR image of a storm front that came through yesterday afternoon. Oddly enough, it came from the northeast, when most storms approach from the west. Just after I took this, the gust front hit and temperatures dropped about 15 degrees in a matter of seconds. While we've had some much needed rain this week, this storm didn't drop any more water on us.

I worked today, another overtime shift that started at 4AM. At the end of it, I was exhausted, so I took the quick route home along US169. It's a limited access, four-lane highway. The road has the usual wide shoulder strewn with debris. In Oklahoma, it's legal to ride there, but it's not very pleasant.

As I approached the bridge over Bird Creek, a bicyclist was traveling north. She had just left the on-ramp and was riding on the shoulder. But at the bridge the shoulder almost disappears. It narrows to no more than 18 inches. I changed lanes before overtaking, but as I looked in my rear view, she was riding the perilously narrow shoulder as other traffic went by at 65-70mph without moving to the left at all. It would be nerve-wracking for me to attempt to ride there. Still, I have to admire her determination.

The Quest

2011-08-07T16:11:00.002-05:00

A voice came down from on high, saying in a loud and stern tone, "Thou hast displeased me, thou toad-like and surly husband, and there will be a reckoning! If thou should wish to be in my presence once again, thou must undertake a quest. Nothing less will bring my forebearance and prevent thy doom."

"What did I do now?" I whined. It was undoubtedly something I did, something I didn't do, or something I did poorly.

"Doest thou claim to not know the cause of my wrath?" the voice thundered. "How can you be so dumb?"

Sometimes I do play dumb. It's easier than trying to explain what I did, didn't, etc., and it avoids providing inadvertent clues to any misdeeds that haven't come to light yet. I did my best 'deer in the headlights' look and said nothing.

"Thou must bring a new peeler unto me!" she said. "In thy utter darkness and stupidity, thou hast lost the only good one in the kitchen."

This wasn't entirely true. I'd been assigned to potato peeling duty every night for a week, and I couldn't help it if the peeler went 'missing' -- although it did absolve me of the responsiblity of denuding helpless potatoes for awhile.

I brightened a little. "Soooo you want a new peeler, a nice one? Maybe something that fits well in the hand and is easy to manipulate?" I had just the thing.

Image by Joanna8555 on Flickr.

"No! Not THAT kind of peeler!" she roared. "I may yet smite thee, thou scruffulous toad-dog! Hie thee to the kingdom of Kohl or the wizard-realm of Target and bring me a peeler. Pray I do not send thee to the bottomless depths of the benighted land of WalMart on a Sunday afternoon, though thou doest truly deserve it. Fetch unto me the Peeler of KitchenAid, and make it snappy 'cause it's on sale, bozo!"

The WalMart bit shook me. We're having the local tax-free holiday this weekend, and the approaches to the dark realm of low, low discount prices would be thronged with orcs, goblins, bawling children, and less-than-happy parents looking to do mayhem for a chance at a parking space.

I respectfully tugged my forelock and hied off to Kohls.

"What wizardry is this?" I thought as I immediately found a place to park. Off to the west, nearer to the all-consuming evil empire that is the blackened land of Wally World, I could hear the cries of the damned floating on the wind. Orcs, trolls, and lawyers were feeding on the hapless crowd in an orgy fueled by money and happy meals from the satanic empire of Ronald McDonald. I turned away, saddened by the loss of so many people, but powerless to overcome the corporate might unleashed on those doomed souls.

I entered the kingdom of Kohl via the front gate, astounded to find it unguarded. Shoppers streamed by, laden with large bags bearing countless treasures. A few toothsome young women streamed by as well, their bodies unencumbered by much in the way of clothing due to the summer heat. I bumped into the door.

Two KitchenAid peelers remained on the shelf. I grabbed one and hurried back to the checkout, expecting to find a crowd of ravenous orcs waiting to make their purchases. But no, I breezed up to the counter and paid a handsome sum for the most wanted of peelers, then booked for the parking lot and home.

It was truly an adventure, but not one that I'd care to repeat any time soon.

Thursday Musette

2011-08-04T18:32:00.005-05:00

This was taken on my front porch yesterday afternoon.

First, a word about bicycle commuting! I've seen the same commuter several times in the morning, and it's painfully obvious that he's terrified of riding in traffic. Yet, like many fearful cyclists, he does things that may appear to be safer than riding in the travel lane, but in reality just make life more difficult for himself and the rest of us on the road.

I first saw him riding south along Mingo Road. He was in the right hand lane. I would be turning right at the south gate to the maintenance base. I slowed and tucked in behind him at a safe distance. To my surprise, he turned right at the gate, then turned left across the entrance just about where a pedestrian crosswalk would be. At the other side of the exit road, he turned twice again, looked over his shoulder for southbound traffic, and went back into the travel lane!

I muttered - okay - I yelled inside the car with the windows up - "Thou lumpish half-faced horn-beast!" or something similarly Olde English and Anglo-Saxonish. (My thanks to Chris Seildel and the Shakespearean Insult Generator for technical assistance.)

I saw him again this week, trying to cross the entrance at the main gate right before 6AM when the whole world is trying to get through that gate. Traffic arrives from north, south, and east - almost all of it turning west. My hapless commuter cyclist jumped the curb and punched the pedestrian crossing button. He wanted to go south across the gate entrance and continue south on Mingo but heavy traffic prevented him crossing like a pedestrian. Had he taken a place in the travel lane and waited his turn like any other traffic, he would have been under way in a minute or two.

I really want to catch up with this guy and give him my business card. He needs a mentor.

...

Have I mentioned that it's stinkin' hot? Oh, I have. There's an endless week of 100+ temperatures ahead. My grass is a nice brown color that crackles like potato chips when I walk on it. I'm worried about the trees, though. There's a redbud around the side. An oak tree stands over the south side of the driveway while a pine guards the north. The pine is shedding needles like crazy.

I had an idea to get water to the roots. I punched a couple of small holes in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket and placed it next to each tree, filling the bucket repeatedly through the evening. The oak had about 25 gallons tonight and the pine has had 10 so far. The water trickles out the bottom of the bucket, soaking into the ground with minimal evaporation. I hope it's effective.

...

I was doing a mod on a computer at work. This one is extensive. It called for the replacement of 6 SRAM chips - static random access memory - and they're kind of a PITA to do. One is nearly touching the lock bar that holds the card in place and it's neighbor is tight up against it, so there's mechanical disassembly to do. Then the card goes onto a hot air desoldering stage. It's cleaner and less stressful than cutting the ICs. After cleaning, the new ICs get soldered in place. They have J-leads that turn under the IC body, and combined with the tight quarters make soldering a pain too.

I thought I had it right when I finished and hooked it up to the test station. As it turned out, I'd managed to solder most of the chips in correctly, only missing a couple of joints.

It's entirely possible for a computer to develop Tourette's syndrome.

I learn something new every day.

Need I say more?

2011-07-24T13:02:00.003-05:00

I'm wondering if it's possible to hibernate until mid-September. I was out and about yesterday afternoon in the heat as we tried to find another car for Jordan. My leg muscles protested. They were stiff and cramped, usually the sign of dehydration. I'm drinking water almost constantly in an effort to keep up.

The house air conditioner struggles too. It's the original unit installed when the house was built, so it's cranky and tries very hard to maintain a 25 degree difference between inside and outside.

With only one or two exceptions, it's been over 100F here for weeks. When I left for work yesterday morning, it was 88F - at 4AM.

I'm desperately looking forward to cooler weather.

Rules for editing

2011-07-18T18:32:00.002-05:00

Bridge in HDR. Click through to see full size on Flickr.

"There are two rules for editing. The first rule is to edit ruthlessly."

I've always liked that one. It's too easy to get enamored of our words and find that we can't part with a single one of them. I do it all the time. It's probably a carry-over of a bad habit from school where written projects had to be X number of pages. I hated writing in school, so wordiness, redundancy, and other bad things took hold.

I learned another rule from my friend Brian, who edited a local cycling newsletter once upon a time. "If you're going to write for public consumption," he said, "You have to be thick-skinned." Was he ever right! I've learned to be thick-skinned, and dismissive of trolls, tools, and fools. Why waste time and energy on them?

So it was with a sense of wonder that I saw this post on the Digital Photo School site, advising those of us who are (ahem) packrats to delete ruthlessly. Not that I'm a packrat, of course. Not me.

DeSoto Suburban

2011-07-17T17:45:00.003-05:00

The used car lot has a 'new' old car. This is a Desoto Suburban. It's the forerunner of all those boxy SUVs cluttering up parking lots everywhere. This is a beast of a car. It's gigantic.

I played with the high dynamic range gadget on Zoner Photo Studio this week. The shot above is a normal exposure. The one below is a composite of three exposures: the one above, and two that were under and over exposed by one stop. I like the way it brings out shadow detail.

I reshot the locomotive over on the west side, too. I was there about mid morning and the sun was already high. Contrast was high too. This first one is the HDR image.

These two look very similar, but when I set them up in a viewer and switched back and forth between them, it appeared that the HDR image had the sun coming from a lower angle than the 'straight' image. Still, this one appears fairly natural, and in all fairness, the Desoto verges on being cartoonish. But I still like it.

Photos have been removed

2011-07-14T16:20:00.002-05:00

I deleted all my photos from Picasa after reading their terms of service:

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

This says that while I retain copyright, Google can use my photos however they choose. I'd prefer language saying that Google can use the photos to promote Picasa or it's successor, but I'm not at all happy about giving my photos to third parties without my consent, attribution, or remuneration.

Google is not alone in doing this. It's a common consent clause in many photo contests, too. Think of it, a company gives away some trinkets as prizes and gets full rights to use all the photos in return.

For now, my photos will be posted on Flickr under CycleDog. I'm considering using one or more of the photos sites like DeviantArt for a few of the better shots.

Fleet Feet Firecracker 5K Fotos

2011-07-04T19:34:00.005-05:00

(New! Link to Picasa web album.)

Who can resist alliteration? I went downtown this morning to take some photos of the Firecracker 5K race and a 1K fun run for kids. These are a few of the morning's photos. And if you're wondering why they're sepia, some big dummy
who looks a lot like me forgot to turn it back to color. Duh.

I thought this was kind of sweet. They're holding hands as they run!

This fire hydrant has a sprinkler attachment. It was just past the finish line, and I think the kids found it to be more fun than the run itself.

This little girl was giving me the stink eye the whole time she was in view. Normally, they're lots older before hitting me with that.

At this point, there's about one kilometer to go. I liked the determination in the runner's faces.

Naturally, there are lots more photos (or should it be "fotos?") but I haven't gone through all of them yet. Most of the time, I leave the camera at it's wide angle setting, about 28mm if I recall right, and then crop down to what I want in the final image. It's good to practice panning at races, trying to get the expressions on their faces as they go by. With the Kodak, that's a hit-and-miss proposition because there's a lag between pushing the shutter button and the actual exposure. So I set the camera for bursts of photos. It will take 3 in rapid succession, then twiddle its thumbs while it empties the buffer. I miss a lot of shots that way.

Guess what I found?

2011-06-29T19:21:00.003-05:00

My Kodak Z1285 will do automatic bracketing! Well, maybe you don't get excited about this, but I do. In burst mode, it will take three shots with as much as plus or minus one stop. This means I can tinker with high dynamic range photography in Zoner Photo Studio.

That photo up above in an HDR image. This next one is the 'middle' exposure that it's based on. Click through for the full size photos.

OK, maybe you're not as excited about it as I am, but try to understand the background. Ansel Adams devised the Zone System over 70 years ago. Among other things, it's photography that mimics the way we see. Our eyes and brains put together images that have extreme contrast from light to dark. An object might be in full sunlight in part of our visual field and in deep shade in another, yet we can see all of it. Film and digital cameras don't see that way. They can extract detail from only one part of the field, so if the light parts are properly exposed, the dark parts are lost.

HDR takes multiple images at different exposures and combines them.

Of course, what's a day without some rusty - or formerly rusty - old equipment? This locomotive was quietly decaying in the Owasso rail yard until a group of local enthusiasts bought it and restored it. It's now on display across from Webster School along Old Route 66 (Southwest Boulevard) in Tulsa. And yes, I tinkered with it, but it's not an HDR image. Maybe next time.

I did stumble across a nice old truck, though. This was over-exposed so I played with the image.

I'll have to go back and revisit some of those places armed with new knowledge about getting better images. Oh, and before I forget, there are more over on my Picasa web albums. I uploaded some dance photos from Skiatook, and added to the existing albums for old cars and railroad stuff. I used three cameras: the Nikon N6006, the Kodak Z1285, and the workhorse Yashica Electro 35GT.

Someday they'll throw me out of the grocery store

2011-06-22T17:15:00.002-05:00

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed may demand that I be patted down for cameras before entering the grocery store. Recently I found some interesting products and simply couldn't resist taking some photos. Imagine that. This stuff is labeled Sexy Hair. Not clean hair or bouncy hair. It's Sexy Hair. I thought people were sexy, not hair.

This is got-2b-fat-tastic and got-2b-kinky. I have no idea what they actually do, but would you want your Mom to see got-2b-kinky in your toiletries? I didn't think so.

Mmmmm, monkey brains. What product wouldn't be better with monkey brains? I looked, but didn't find any monkey butt powder. But tasty monkey brains, yeah, we got that.

It almost makes me look forward to our next trip to the store. Almost.

More Tulsa Tough Photos

2011-06-16T18:36:00.006-05:00

Hey, kid! Get offa my lawn!

I just added a few to the Picasa Web Album, including this one. It's my favorite from that day. And in truth, I can't say whether the guy is yelling at me or my subject! I didn't even notice him until the prints came back. Another fine example of serendipity.

This was taken with the Yashica Electro 35 GT, a fine rangefinder camera from the early 1970s. I used Kodak black and white 400. The mini-lab scanned the photos and I did post processing on the jpegs in Zoner Photo Studio 13.

Fun, fun, fun, 'til Daddy takes the bike lane away!

2011-06-15T19:19:00.003-05:00

Okay, we've had magic spokes that spelled out various things as they turned. We've had 'air free' tires that only a gorilla could stretch onto a rim. We've seen the humble rear view mirror replaced with a camera and video screen. We've even seen something that projected bike lane stripes out to the side of a bicycle.

This latest dubious 'safety' device seems to be stuck in the vaporware stage, and let's all hope it remains so. It's a laser imaging device that puts a bike lane symbol out in front of the bicyclist, as is seen in this obviously p-shopped image. It's magick, of course, and it works on the world renowned voodoo hoodoo principle that anything that makes you think you're safe is actually making you safe. More safe. Saferest. Or something.

But why read my babble when you can read the original babble?

I loves me that voodoo hoodoo that you do so well.

Tulsa Tough Photos

2011-06-12T16:19:00.003-05:00

I wandered around the Tulsa Tough criterium circuit this morning, catching one of the women's races, the kid's race, and more.

This TPD officer will hereafter be known as "Officer McFriendly". He threatened me with three hundred dollars worth of tickets for driving on the wrong side of the road as I went around a barrier at an intersection about 150 yards from his air-conditioned cruiser. I was trying to find where to park, and by having the temerity to ask a question and forcibly extract him from all that air-conditioned comfort, I made Officer McFriendly somewhat cross. Regardless, I've given him the coveted Dick of the Day Award.

I took this photo after finding a parking space on the opposite end of the course, and I watched in wonder as car after car drove around the barrier, some to unload cargo, bikes, and passengers, while others were equally puzzled about the parking situation. Officer McFriendly - welcome to Tulsa, ya dick.

This is Cry Baby Hill, a tough climb for a criterium as racers hit it again and again. It has a street corner turn right in the middle. That makes the pack stretch out like a rubber band and eventually, it snaps. But the people who party on Cry Baby Hill may have snapped some time ago.

There are more photos over on my Picasa web album.

2011-06-05T13:00:00.002-05:00

You spend more than twenty years raising a kid, and it comes down to this - a photo of him with his feet propped up on a desk at the Army recruiter's office. It was taken just about two hours ago.

He's gone. I won't be able to process all this for awhile. It's a major step in his life, and it's no less in ours.

Jordan is on his way to Fort Benning, Georgia, where he's to receive basic training and advanced individual training as an infantryman. His ultimate goal is to be in federal law enforcement, so this is a stepping stone toward it. After a year in the infantry, he can move to military police.

As a parent, I'm both proud of my son and worried for him. Ambivalence seems to be my fate. He has some fine qualities and some maddening ones, but on the whole, Jordan is a good kid. As one of my friends put it, "We realize sometime when they're teenagers that we're just along for the ride." That is so right. We've either instilled good values in them or we haven't and by the late teens there's no going back.

I've already started writing letters to him. We won't hear anything from him for a few days, but once I have his APO address, I'll write often.

Cyclists lose a round: Black Hawk revisited

2011-05-29T21:04:00.003-05:00

Real quick...

http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_18139040

Three cyclists who contested their tickets for the sin of riding bicycles through Black Hawk, Colorado, had their citations upheld by the local judge.

Surprise, surprise.

It will be interesting to see what spin LAB puts on it this time.

Ask Dr. Wally: Meer-acle Water

2011-05-29T10:29:00.004-05:00

Dear Dr. Wally,

I visited our town carnival over the weekend. There was a booth attended by a stunning young woman hawking something called "Meer-acle Water." She said it boosted amino acids and reduced recovery time, all while purging the body of unwanted ions, heavy metals, phosphates, fluoride, and a long list of other chemicals. She seemed very sincere and even showed me the differences between tap water and her product by using some kind of digital meter. Does this stuff work? I don't know, but I'll be getting a case of it every week for the next three years. She sold me on a contract.

Hydrated in Hugo

Wow! That's a lot of water. Are you a fish? I ask because it's very possible you're a sucker.

Now, I fully understand the persuasive power of attractive women. After all, I've been married four times. Or is it five? Regardless, it's impossible for water to be ionized. An ion is a charged molecule and water is a conductor. It would dissipate the charge. We call all these claims by their scientific name - hooey. It's made up. It's imaginary. And it sells like crazy.

Next time you're in Broken Elbow, have some of our miracle water. We're at the top of the watershed, so our water comes from a spring up the hill from town. In the winter, it's 38 degrees right out of the tap - perfect for chilling beer - and in the summer we hardly ever get tadpoles in it since we installed that new filtration system.

Sincerely,
Dr. Wally

Next month: Deflecting Amway mind control rays with common household products.

Memorial Day weekend

2011-05-28T21:29:00.005-05:00

Yeah, right. It's a 'holiday' weekend so I get two days off. This overtime stuff is getting old.

(Click through for the full size photos. They're better!)

This was taken months ago with a Yashica Lynx 14, another rangefinder from the 1960s. I like the camera and I think the images are good, but it's a squinty viewfinder, difficult to focus quickly, and for that alone I don't carry it often. I'll have to tinker with it in low light sometime.

I purchased the 'pro' version of Zoner Photo Studio after using the free version for awhile. One of the photo blogs said this is very similar to Lightroom, but I wouldn't know. It does just about everything I need in a photo database and editing program. I've played with the panorama function, like in this photo and some others. The paid version will do high dynamic range and some other things I haven't learned to use yet.

Finally, as I wandered the Blue Dome Arts Festival last weekend, I saw this. The two women are members of Tulsa Belly Dance and they were preparing for a performance. The guy's reaction was simply fortuitous.

Severe storm photos

2011-05-23T16:43:00.003-05:00

This storm hit Joplin, Missouri last night, spawning a tornado that killed many people. The numbers are still rising as I write this.

At the time, Mary remarked that the clouds looked pretty. And they do. But their fluffy appearance comes from powerful updrafts. They looked almost like steam boiling atop a kettle.

The view in that first photo is roughly east to southeast. I took it with the Kodak Z1285 using the camera's internal stitching software. Afterward, I corrected some of the distortion in Zoner Photo Studio, straightening that light pole in the middle but making the edges distort almost like a fish-eye lens.

The bottom photo was taken less than half an hour later. The storm stretches from east to south, growing as it moved. This was taken with the same camera with the lens zoomed to about 100 mm. They were stitched in Zoner. The right most ones are out of focus but it looks OK in the smaller sizes. The original was over 30 megs!

This won't turn out well

2011-05-21T20:30:00.003-05:00

OK, the CDC just put out a 'public service bulletin' that supposedly makes tongue-in-cheek reference to the Zombie Apocalypse. Yeah, right. That's what they want you to think. It's just another clever government disinformation campaign intended to lull us all into a false sense of security. The zombies are out there. They're coming. And we're utterly unprepared.

Actually, the CDC wants all of us to be prepared for any emergency, not just the Zombie Apocalypse. It contains the list of items we should have on hand in case of any natural disaster, something that should be in the forefront of our thinking since the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in Japan. Here in Oklahoma, we have the New Madrid fault to our east in Missouri and Arkansas. It hasn't produced a major earthquake for nearly 200 years, so it's just possibly due.

But my money is on the zombies.

They're gone! They're gone!

2011-05-21T18:18:00.002-05:00

I worked overtime today. This afternoon, I fell asleep after work. When I woke up, no one was around. The television was off. No one was in the house. The street was eerily silent. No planes went overhead and even the noise from the freeway was gone.

I was alone in a silent world.

The rapture thing must have happened! Nothing else would account for it. I was alone!

So of course, I stripped off all my clothes, smeared peanut butter all over my body, and ran down the street singing "John Brown's Body" not because it was especially appropriate but because it was all I could think of at the time.

Freedom is a highly personal thing.

A police car came around the bend and stopped at the bottom of the hill. I did a quick u-turn and hot-footed it back to the house. I heard a couple of yelps from his siren, but never looked back.

So I'm not alone, after all. In fact, I probably won't be alone for long as they're pounding on the front door. It's really hard to get all this peanut butter off in a hurry.

Rusty old hulks

2011-05-18T16:19:00.002-05:00

I came across this on How to be a Retronaut yesterday, and since I know some of you like these rusty old hulks (I'm talking at you, George!) go take a look. They're lovely photos of seriously large bits of junk.

Carney Art

2011-05-15T15:15:00.006-05:00

This is carney art, as in carnival, not the late Art Carney.

I wandered through the Trail Days carnival early this morning just as the sun was coming up. The whole lot was deserted. It was kind of eerie in a way, but once I really started looking at some of the art work applied to a couple of the trailers, it rapidly went downhill to out and out creepy.

OK, monkeys I can handle, even ones that look like they were spray painted by a talented graffiti artist. But monkeys and "shoes required" tipped the irony meter.

This is a detail from the first photo of the ticket trailer up on top. There's a lot going on in that one, including two policemen presumably falling to their deaths from a balloon. But if you look carefully, you find that the guy wearing the boater isn't looking up at the falling balloonists. He's looking down at this woman's big butt. What's more, her sly smile seems to indicate she knows where he's looking.

This is painted on the entry door to the ticket trailer. There's a good reason your parents said to never take candy from strangers, and it doesn't get much stranger than this. Look carefully and you'll notice that his right eye is actually a wide angle lens.

This is part of the same trailer. The guy is obviously impressed with this young woman's talents. Both of them.

Sure, there's more 'normal' carnival stuff, like riding this chicken on the merry go round. Lovely.

Here's the Ferris wheel in silhouette against the rising sun. It was early. And it was cold! Temperatures fell to the low 40s overnight.

The deserted midway at dawn.

I think the city contracted with the same carnival for the last couple of years. Many of them winter here in Oklahoma so perhaps this is a local carnie business too. I think there's an Oklahoma tag on the merry go round trailer.

This is the first time I've really noticed the art on the trailers. It's perhaps in the realm of folk art. I got a kick out of looking at the details, though, and it's a reminder to look for those little things that I'd normally miss.

Gundy's Airport

2011-05-08T14:10:00.005-05:00

This morning, my friend Wade accompanied me out to Gundy's Airport just east of Owasso. It has a single north-south runway and it's used by many local pilots. Most of the houses surrounding the airstrip have both a garage and a hangar.

The rest of the photos - the good ones anyway - are over on Flickr. There's an interesting mix of new and old, restored and decrepit. Since the airport is underutilized, there's hangar space rented out to RVs and even a few cars.

If you visit Gundy's, be sure to get one of the popular treats here in Northeast Oklahoma, an airplane-on-a-stick.

It just doesn't get much better than that!

Quick photo dump

2011-05-02T21:35:00.004-05:00

This American Airlines DC-3 visited Tulsa over the weekend for a fund raiser at the Tulsa Air and Space Museum. It spent Thursday night in a hangar at the maintenance base and I was able to get a few photos early Friday morning.

The color shots are from the Kodak Z1285 and the black and white images are scans from the Nikon N6000 loaded with Kodak 400B/W, scanned at our local photo lab. Click through and look at the full size images for the detail.

Now what?

2011-05-01T17:12:00.002-05:00

I've seen plenty of strange cycling stuff over the years, from Skid Lids to magic lasers meant to provide your own personal bike lane. But this helmet ranks near the top in terms of sheer goofiness.

First, be very afraid. "Six out of ten" bike crashes occur after 4PM. (And the majority of all cycling crashes occur in summer months when the sun goes down - what? - later than 4PM?) So if you wear this lighted helmet, maybe it increases the magical powers inherent in styrofoam and plastic.

In some circles, nothing says "dork" more effectively than wearing a helmet, but in this case, anyone wearing this uber-dorky model deserves to get beat up by some smart aleck math nerds in thick glasses.

Driving cars drives us crazy

2011-04-28T07:00:00.000-05:00

I drive to work over the same two lane route that I ride on my bicycle. It's a little slower to be sure, but it's also far less stressful than the highway.

On the bike, I see the same motorists day after day. They come to expect a cyclist somewhere along the road, and for the most part they treat me courteously and safely. Getting buzzed or honked at is a comparatively rare occurrence.

It seems worse when I drive and I can only speculate why. All those other motorists are essentially anonymous behind a few tons of steel and tinted glass. Given that we're all traveling at the same speed more or less, the chances of encountering the same motorists on the commute are relatively low. In other words, my speed matches the other driver's speed, so the number I see each day is smaller than it is when I'm on the bike.

The lower speed on the bike means I see a larger cross-section of drivers, and as I said, they come to expect a cyclist. Once they're acclimated to that idea, they're very accommodating on the road. Again, this is speculation, but I think that by seeing the same middle aged guy each day, they really do see a cyclist as another person, one on his way to work just as they are.

There is some anecdotal support for this idea. On those occasions when I've ridden outside my usual times, or when I've been on other routes, I've been subjected to more motorist abuse. Now, anecdotes are decidedly NOT evidence, so this is something that bears more study.

Despite seeing fewer other drivers when I'm driving, I think the number of instances of road rage, simple stupidity, and dangerous driving are actually greater. I've watched as multiple cars run a particular red light nearly every day. One guy was in such a hurry to get in the gate at work one whole car length ahead of me that he passed in a right turn lane. Others tailgate and speed on that narrow two lane road, oblivious to the numerous deer and skunks, seemingly in a rush to reach that red light just up ahead. I've concluded that there's something about the act of driving that makes ordinary people lose their senses.

Maybe riding a bike has altered my expectations on the road. I know that if I leave the convenience store with my newspaper by a certain time, I'll be at the time clock X minutes later, plus or minus a couple of minutes depending on the wind direction. When I drive, of course, I don't have to be concerned about the wind, but the same principle applies. There's no pressure to drive fast or risk an too-close encounter with a skunk.

And yes, I still try to lift my butt off the car seat when I'm crossing the railroad tracks. Old habits die hard.

The scourge of spandex bums

2011-04-27T07:00:00.001-05:00

Here's the May column for Ask Dr. Wally from the Wheel Issues newsletter.

Dear Dr. Wally Every spring, hordes of bicyclists commandeer our local roads, delaying traffic, frightening livestock, and shocking innocent women and children with their outrageous attire. These bums in spandex are an affront to common decency with their skin-tight clothing and abhorrently loud colors. What can we do to get them to be more like normal people?

Peeved in Poteau

Bums in spandex? Peeved, you made a funny!

Actually, Peeved, I'm trying to get our local club to adopt more comfortable clothing for the summer months. The traditional Arab thobe, a loose, long sleeved garment that covers down to the ankles, would offer welcome respite from Oklahoma's summer heat. My girlfriend mistakenly calls it a "bernice." It think she means "bernoose" but she's overly fond of both floral patterns and copious amounts of red wine. And she's making dinner so I'm willing to overlook minor foibles.

I tried riding in baggy cargo shorts, but they tend to get hooked over the nose of the saddle. That wasn't really a big problem...until I stood up to climb a hill. Sure, I stood up but the shorts stayed down. It gave some elderly ladies the vapors and lead to a long chat with the local constabulary. I wore a big, ornamented sombrero that day, and it didn't help my case. The cops were certain I'd escaped from an asylum somewhere. Dunno why.

If I can figure a way to keep my thobe from getting caught in the spokes, it should work well for bicycling especially if there's a tailwind. It's like a sail! Then all I have to do is figure out how to keep rednecks, local cops, the highway patrol and Homeland Security from stopping me every half mile.

I'll let you know how this works out right after I find that sombrero.

Dr. Wally

Next month: Weight loss on the County Jail Diet Plan

Left wing secret decoder ring

2011-04-26T19:19:00.002-05:00

I'm going to let you in on a major secret - one that I'm sure you won't reveal to anyone else because there's only about a dozen readers for CycleDog anyway.

For years now, I've been part of the Left Wing Liberal Media, or LWLM for short. But I've never been a person who believes in secrecy and conspiracy as a means of pursuing our goals, so I've decided to come clean.

I'm going to tell you how the secret decoder ring works.

It's really quite simple, so simple that I'm surprised it hasn't come to light before now. The decoder ring uses a simple transposition code. A=A, B=B, C=C, etc. Yes, it really is that simple! So the coded phrase "Donald Trump has no chance of being elected to the presidency" translates as "Donald Trump has no chance of being elected to the presidency." "Sarah Palin is a gold-digging grifter" translates to "Sarah Palin is a gold-digging grifter."

This is diabolically clever! The right cannot believe that these simple phrases actually mean no more than they say, so they look for deeper, hidden meanings within them. And like an ink blot, they find what they most want to find, things like: "Liberals hate America!" "Liberals are in league with terrorists!" or - my personal favorite - "Liberals are afraid of Glenn Beck!"

So as an example of the tremendous power in the secret decoder ring, let's translate this phrase: "A serious commitment to deficit reduction requires a serious commitment to both sides of the issue -spending cuts and tax increases." It may be a good idea to stand well away from any conservatives you know when this phrase is decoded as their heads may explode.

The survivors, of course, will accuse you of being a bomb-throwing gay socialist radical from Kenya.

Monday musette

2011-04-25T16:04:00.004-05:00

I wandered through the Tulsa Flea Market on Saturday and came across this lovely bit of Americana. Somehow, I'm thinking those guys aren't actually zombies. For one thing, they seem to have all their body parts and there isn't a single mention of "braaaaains!" to be found.

Imposters, I'm sure. And no, I didn't buy it.

This was taken on my way home from work today. It's the pecan grove just south of 76th Street. Right now, it's a wonderful riot of bright green. The overcast sky reduced contrast due to the flat lighting. I like the look. But I like this when the sun is setting and it's all back lit, too. Bright green with gold light from the setting sun. What's not to love?

This view is south along Mingo Road toward Tulsa. See how the ditch is full of water? We're expecting more rain, so there's a chance the road will be flooded. I rode my bike through here once when the water covered the road, tilting my headlight down so I could see the double yellow line under the water as a gauge to its depth. It's an experience I probably won't repeat (probably).

A funny

2011-04-23T22:29:00.002-05:00

My dad used to sing Tura-Lura-Lural, an Irish lullaby, to us kids when we were small. He said he'd learned it from his mother. When his grandchildren visited, he sang it to them, too.

Earlier today, Mary and I were talking about war movies when she suddenly asked, "Why did your dad sing Tora Tora Tora to the kids?"

Sapulpa Sunday

2011-04-19T20:57:00.005-05:00

Sapulpa (pronounced sah-pa-LOOP-ah according to She Who Must Be Obeyed, but in reality it's sah-PULP-ah) is just southwest of Tulsa, a short drive or an easy bike ride along old Route 66. The downtown area consists of nicely preserved and restored brick buildings constructed just prior to World War One. Not all are restored, of course, but the town is making an effort to preserve its history.

There's a big regional car show coming up in Sapulpa in June. I asked Mary if she'd like to go, but it's a bit far for her and it would require a lot of walking. Lyndsay likes car shows, however, and it's possible she'll go along.

I use "Oklahoma Route 66" by Jim Ross for scouting out old routes and photographic opportunities. He detailed one of the old alignments west of Sapulpa that lead me to this dilapidated old drive in theater and this railroad trestle. The road winds up and down hills. It has a wealth of blind curves. At one time much earlier in life, I would have regarded it as a challenge, but these days I drive far more cautiously.

Sapulpa is a fascinating town. I spent about 4 hours there on Sunday. Chances are, I'll make more trips out there soon.

Guns & Gardens

2011-04-16T17:59:00.004-05:00

Yes, it's cheesy, low-budget video of the zombie apocalypse, but it has wonderful stuff like this:

"They're putting heads on sticks in the parking lot! Lord of the Flies ain't got nothing on Wal-Mart."

YouTube: Guns & Gardens

I love this quote

2011-04-13T20:30:00.002-05:00

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”...Moliere

Ain't that the truth? I began writing CycleDog as a laboratory for columns intended for the Red Dirt Pedalers newsletter, but it just kind of mutated into something more. Things have changed over the years. I've written plenty of comedy, some screeds and rants, and even some thoughtful pieces that - to my great surprise - have influenced others in the bicycling advocacy field.

But as I rode my bike less due to injuries, the bicycling content here dwindled. I stay busy, however, so there's been more on cameras and photography, history, and other personal subjects. Trust me, bicycling is not going away. It's still a big piece of my life. And since my knee seems to be getting stable again, I plan to be back on the bike soon.

Still, why that quote up above? Most of you know I write for the Examiner too. It pays more than blogging and it's not too demanding, although to be honest, it doesn't pay much. In a good month, it was enough to take the family out to dinner once or twice. In a bad month, it was more on the order of frozen pizza.

On the subject of writing and money, let's just say that when it's a choice between spending an hour writing here, or an hour writing something for pay, the money often wins. That's been thrown into sharp relief recently, when I found a venue that pays better than the Examiner. It's not about bicycling, so I won't go into it other than to say it's more in the area of my technical expertise with electronics. Dry, yes. And humorless.

So, like a prostitute, I'm doing it for the money.

Last summer, I took a shot at a long magazine piece for a local publication. For several reasons, it went wildly wrong. I still think the editor wanted a hatchet piece, one that did not show his own fingerprints. When I didn't deliver that, communications became distinctly chilly. Though I received a kill fee - a partial payment for the column - I ended up working for considerably less than minimum wage. It was instructive, nonetheless.

That's the long way around. What I'm saying is that I won't spend an inordinate amount of time chasing after an editor's wants and needs. I'm trying to find that balance between time/income/effort and the whole concept of balance is one that any cyclist can appreciate.

I like writing. Sometimes I love it. Other times I hate it when I sit at this keyboard and the screen remains stubbornly blank. One thing is clear, though, and that's the simple truth that I can't stop.

Close to home

2011-04-10T13:50:00.005-05:00

First, an apology because I missed 5 comments on some recent posts. Dunno why, but mea culpa.

On Saturday, I visited the Owasso Historical Society museum down on Main Street. I've lived here more than twenty years, and I'd only been in there once for a brief visit. The town had less than a thousand residents for most of the last century, but in the 1980s the population boomed. It's now about thirty thousand.

The museum is in a former grocery store. Actually, the grocery was on one side and the other was a rental property. There's a photo showing it as a small lunch counter.

This is Orval. His area of expertise is the pre-statehood period. He showed me old maps and photographs, as well as the bond document for the school constructed in 1909. The bond was for $15,000.

Owasso was the end of the line for a railroad line from Caney, Kansas, for about 5 years. Back then, the town had over 30 dairies. They were probably shipping a lot of milk. Not one remains today.

But the mention of dairies made me think of this abandoned one just east of town. I'll have to go back down to the museum and find out who owned it.

Earlier this week, the fire department conducted training exercises on some wrecked cars. Mary and I drove by as they were cutting a door off and I really wanted to get some photos. It was not to be. There's an aura of sadness about them because the damage included some people, not just sheet metal. George likes some rusty old cars. These are neither old nor rusty, but they certainly have some unfortunate history behind them.

The fire down below

2011-04-05T18:54:00.000-05:00

She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed decided we would have chili tonight. Now, I love chili, but I can't have beef. The proteins clog up my joints and the resulting intense pain is highly effective at changing my behavior. So She didn't put beef in my chili.

She used chorrizo, instead.

"Taste this and see if it needs more spices," she said. The chili bubbled at the bottom of a pot, looking exactly like molten lava only hotter.

If you're unfamiliar with chorrizo, it's a Mexican sausage made with beef or pork, scads of pepper, radioactive byproducts, and even more pepper. This is like Italian sausage on steroids as envisaged by masked, cackling maniacs from the Spanish Inquisition.

And I love it.

I took a spoon and tasted the chili. My tongue blistered and my nose hairs burned off. It was perfect!

Life is good.

Good find at Goodwill

2011-04-03T18:12:00.005-05:00

There's a well-worn path that I follow to the local Goodwill store a few times each week. Most days I don't find anything useful or significant. Occasionally, I come across a real gem like that Rollei 35 that didn't work, but for two bucks, who cares? I bought the Olympus OM1 and the XA2 there as well.

But yesterday, I found this:

Yep, a Canon 75-300mm lens for $50. The price is in the upper left corner. I took it out of the box and looked it over carefully, finding nothing wrong. But I don't have a Canon DSLR. The only Canons I have are an ancient rangefinder and that A590IS. But a friend has a Canon DSLR, so I sent him a text message about the lens.

He was only a few blocks away and he was definitely interested. He stopped by the house to pick up a camera body, then drove to the Goodwill where we tested the lens. Minutes later, he walked out with it.

A Google search said the lens is a "mediocre" performer. Remember, though, that this comes from people who probably don't have to pay for the lenses they use and test. So what may be a mid-level unit to them can be perfectly usable for us mere plebeians. Sure, it's not an f2.8 zoom, but then again, it's compact and lightweight.

Goodwill offers a seven day return policy, so I recommended running it through its paces for the next couple of days.

And if I get the chance, I'll borrow the camera for a few days to tinker with it myself!

Saturday in Sperry

2011-04-03T12:59:00.003-05:00

There was a thread on a local forum about old-fashioned ice cream parlors. It made me think of this. Inexplicably, the power is still on this neon sign. The building looks to be filled with antiques. Here's a shot of the store front.

Across the street are several old cars and trucks. This is the old town center of Sperry and the Osage Prairie Trail bisects the town. There was considerable bicycle traffic.

The Bike Riding Donut Guy likes him some old, rusty cars and trucks. We seem to have them in abundance here. The photo is a bit over exposed as I wanted the detail in the radiator, so the highlights blew out. Sure, I could do it in HDR (if I knew how and bothered to carry a tripod) but I'm essentially lazy.

Finally, this Cadillac Coupe de Ville is on a car lot in Owasso. I noticed it after breakfast yesterday. Mary says it's a gangster-mobile, but I'm just enthralled by them Cadillac bumper bullets.

As always, there are more photos on Picasa. And of course, I used a film camera too, so those photos will be available in a few days.

Ain't gonna go there

2011-03-30T18:11:00.004-05:00

Granted, it probably won't be as fun or as funny as that all-time SyFy classic "Midnight Meat Train" but it could be close.

This was a grab shot taken through the car windshield with the Olympus FE320. It cleaned up nicely in Zoner Photo Studio. The very best camera is the one you always have with you.

Perilous bike maintenance

2011-03-29T14:18:00.000-05:00

Liberty is one of our cats, a chubby, long-haired calico with a sweet disposition and friendly attitude. She strongly resembles a football with fur and she greets me at the door when I come home from work. She's happy to see me in the morning, rubbing against my legs as I pour a cup of coffee. I'd let her sleep in the bedroom, but her loud purr and insistence on showing her affection by getting in my face are not conducive to falling asleep.

Besides, she produces the occasional Fart Of Joy. This is a noxious gas cloud that can clear a room in seconds. Even the dog leaves. The FOJ can occur when she's happy, frightened, hungry, anxious, or fast asleep. In short, it covers all occasions. Liberty remains sweetly oblivious.

I was in the garage working on the old Bianchi. For some reason, the cats are fascinated by the bike stand, my tools, and the various noises. I always have an audience and whatever I'm doing requires constant inspection. I'm careful to shoo them away when I'm using lubricants or solvents, but they seldom stay away for long.

Liberty hopped up on the work bench to peer into my tool box. Unlike some of the other cats, she doesn't steal small items for use as playthings. I kept a wary eye on her nonetheless. The garage is not well ventilated.

Through the open doorway, Mary announced that lunch was ready. Now, I may fascinate the cats while working on a bike, but they venerate Mary - and the refrigerator - as the Sources of All Goodness. They were gone in an instant. I took advantage of that to drop the bike out of the stand and add some air to the tires with a floor pump.

I hadn't ridden the bike since fall, mostly due to the knee problems plaguing me since last summer. In cold weather, the knee hurts more. The snow in February hadn't helped. Besides shoveling for three days, I'd nearly fallen twice and I twisted the knee both times. I've been hobbling around with a cane most days.

The pain gradually eased off and the knee felt more stable, not a hundred percent, but definitely improved. That lead to the bike maintenance session.

The Bianchi was finished. I planned to ride it around the neighborhood after lunch. The back tire, however, had other plans. Later, I found it separated between the casing and the wire bead, but at the moment, all I heard was a loud bang, almost like a pistol shot.

Something crashed to the floor. "Oh, no!" Mary wailed from the kitchen. She joined me almost immediately in the garage, slamming the door behind her. Cats frantically scratched at the other side. "That scared me and I dropped your sandwich," she said, "and Liberty...well...Liberty..." She didn't have to go on.

A few minutes later, I cautiously opened the door. Liberty was finishing off the salami from my sandwich, her muzzle covered in mayonnaise. I could feel Mary's glare boring holes in my back with laser precision. There's a spare tire somewhere in the garage. It would be a good opportunity to fix the bike and go for a ride. I'll have lunch later.

Ask Dr. Wally: Helmet cameras

2011-03-28T20:16:00.001-05:00

Dear Dr. Wally,

I've been thinking about getting a helmet camera to document the encounters I've had with local motorists. Most of them are safe, courteous drivers, but a small percentage are either baffled when they meet cyclists on the road or they're angry. I had a nasty security guard at a local business tell me I couldn't lock my bike to the fence outside. I'd really like to document this. Do you have any advice regarding these cameras?

Photogenic in Poteau

Ah, security guards. They occupy a special place in the pantheon of small-minded demi-gods, chubby county sheriff's deputies, and my waspish English teacher from high school. Get a helmet camera and use it, Pho, but don't expect that your effort will bring positive results in every case.

First, some background. In Oklahoma as in most states, there's no expectation of privacy in a public place. That means you can photograph people without their consent - provided you're not using the photos for advertising or using someone's likeness in a malicious way. You can take photos on private property, but if the property owner objects, you must leave or you can be arrested for trespassing. The photos, however, are your property and they cannot be taken from you.

Some police agencies will be proactive and try to identify problem motorists using a cyclist's video. Other agencies, however, regard cyclists as a nuisance and will dismiss even the most egregious video of an abusive or dangerous motorist. Still, with the popularity of a public forum like YouTube, these benighted police departments can be dragged kicking and screaming into the twenty first century.

Dr. Wally

Next month: Collected recipes for county sheriff's deputies from the wild cannibals of Oklahoma

Photo musette

2011-03-20T18:08:00.003-05:00

This lovely pile of stone is Tulsa's Union Depot, a former train station. It's now the Jazz Depot and home to the Tulsa Philharmonic. You can imagine men in fedoras and trenchcoats, tearful families seeing their sons off to war, or a Hollywood starlet stepping down from a train in front of adoring fans. I'd love to see the inside.

This is just a taste. I'm fascinated by the building and I'll undoubtedly go there again. For that matter, this is my second trip there already.

This is the first floor entry to the Depot. I like the Art Deco door handles, a nice touch considering that ordinary office doors would have been far less expensive.

This was taken with the Nikon N6006 in Collinsville last week. I like public art and I like red brick buildings, so the two go together quite well.

This was taken with the Canon A590IS earlier today. It's a motorcycle shop along Admiral Boulevard in Tulsa. This was one early alignment of Route 66, though more period buildings can be found along the 11th Street alignment.

The Canon doesn't seem to be as sharp as the Kodak Z1285. Then again, it's only 8 megapixels as opposed to the Kodak's 12 megs. I don't know if the lenses make a difference, but the Kodak has a Schneider lens too. One big failing of the Kodak is that the screen is impossible to see in bright light and there's no optical finder. I've been very tempted to attach an accessory viewfinder to this camera.

Here's another headstone from the cemetery last week too, again, taken with the Nikon N6006.

I'm a tired puppy. Besides the walking around in Tulsa this morning, I did some yard work and installed a new closer on the front door. My feets be hurtin'! Worse yet, I found out all too quickly that I'm in poor shape to be outside with a shovel in my hands.

More photos are over on my Picasa web album.

"We named the dog Indiana."

2011-03-16T18:38:00.004-05:00

I bought a new hat, a classically styled fedora made of oil cloth. This is actually waxed cotton and it's the eighteenth century version of Goretex. The hat isn't dressy but it's certainly practical. The brim provides shade. When it's raining it keeps the water off my glasses. I hate having water droplets all over the lenses.

Number One Daughter says I look like Indiana Jones, assuming that Jones was nearsighted and walked with a limp due to a bad knee.

Given all that, this should be the prefect hat for an intrepid adventurer. So I set off to explore the deepest recesses of my Toshiba laptop. There was good reason to do so. Apparently some voodoo witch doctor laid a hex on it, or perhaps it was under the magic spell of an enchantress. On the other hand, since the kids have been using it regularly, it may just be gorfed.

'Gorfed' is a technical description of an electronic device that is not working at its full capacity - or any capacity - for that matter. It's a polite version of a somewhat more earthy, older term, but this is a family webpage after all.

Number One Son told me the computer wasn't working right. Sure enough, it wouldn't open various programs. The mouse pad was partially inoperative, and the clock indicated I was rapidly traveling both backward and forward in time.

After conversing, conferring, and otherwise hobnobbing with some fellow adventurers, the near universal advice was to replace the battery on the CMOS chip. This is the computer's internal clock and without it, bad voodoo happens. I could almost hear the drums.

I found a web page with instructions for disassembling the Toshiba, so with a jeweler's screwdriver in hand, I set off in pursuit of adventure. The first set back involved taking off the hat so I could wear binocular magnifiers. Those screws are tiny!

The battery was immediately revealed under a cover for the modem. I could see it, but I couldn't get to it. There were a few extra steps involved, like removing the battery, CD/DVD drive, hard drive, modem, memory sticks, myriad cables, and a partridge in a pear tree. The keyboard bezel had to come off, along with the keyboard, and top cover. I evicted a family of illegal Swedish immigrants, which explained all that late night singing and the rapid disappearance of my vodka. Finally, I arrived at the mother board. The instructions said to remove just the four screws holding it in place, but there were about a dozen in view. I was certain that if I chose incorrectly, arrows would spew from the walls or a boulder would crush me. Decisions, decisions.

By carefully prying up the motherboard, I was able to determine which screws to remove. The board popped out, and there, in all its glory, was the button cell battery. The damned thing has welded leads, not a clip, so I have to go find a replacement to solder onto the board!

I'm going to put my hat back on and trek off into the wilderness of Radio Shack! First, however, there was a minor plumbing disaster to take care of in the kid's bathroom, but that's another tale of adventure and mayhem.

Parent's dilemma

2011-03-14T17:06:00.002-05:00

(First, an aside about the word 'dilemma.' I thought it was spelled 'dilemna' and in fact I found some support for that on-line. But when I checked the Webster's dictionary here in the house, I couldn't find dilemna. It's not in the OED, either. So dilemma it is.)

Number One Son found work as a security guard for a company here in Tulsa, surprisingly enough, the company that does security at the maintenance base where I work. And in a happy coincidence of monumental proportions, he's working the same shift as me! He has two weekdays off, so we ride to work together on the other three days.

This morning, it was 38F with a stiff north wind as we left the house well before dawn. I wore a windbreaker and a sweater. He had a short sleeved uniform shirt with a t-shirt underneath.

"Where's your jacket?" I asked. "It's cold out there."

"One of the cats peed on it. Mom hasn't washed it yet," he replied.

I wanted to ask 'why was your jacket on the floor?', 'why didn't you wash it yourself?', and 'why didn't you put a long sleeve thermal shirt on under your uniform?' But I stifled all that, thinking that a cold day at work would serve as a good reminder to take care of his things on his own. And almost immediately, I felt guilty for thinking that. He's my kid and there's a powerful urge to take care of him, even when he should be doing it himself.

I kept my mouth shut. Ultimately, he spent the day in the security van with the heater cranked up. Still, I wonder if I made the right decision today, but I suppose the real test of that will be revealed by his behavior. If he decides to do his own laundry as needed, I'll consider it a victory.

Crown Hill Cemetery

2011-03-13T15:03:00.006-05:00

Crown Hill is an old cemetery that is still in use today. I've passed by it many times, and I've often wondered why it has these brick towers. Could they have served some purpose at one time, or were they meant to be merely decorative?

The oldest graves I saw dated from the 1920s. Many of the markers have the names and dates worn away by weather. Some were obviously home-made, cast out of concrete with the names scribed in with a sharp tool.

There are numerous military headstones. Most of these old soldiers fought in the Second World War, but I saw a few who served in World War One and Korea.

The photos seen here are reduced from the originals. And of course, those originals are on my Picasa web album. The full set includes 19 images.

Hump day

2011-03-09T17:43:00.002-06:00

It's Wednesday and I'm feeling humpish. There are a few interesting bits in the news, and I feel compelled to make fun of some of them. It's that or go barking mad.

First up, this bit from the Visalia Times with the headline "Bike lanes get big boost in Visalia."

A cyclist cruises along Noble Avenue west of County Center Drive in Visalia on Tuesday. It is one of many proposed bike lanes in the city. / Ron Holman

(For some odd reason, Blogger insists on doing the rest of this in italics. I've tried to change it, but I've given up in frustration.)

I didn't make that up. If the caption is to be believed, this sidewalk is about to become a bike lane. If so, it's worse than that 3 foot wide door zone bike lane that was in the news last week. Visalia city officials should be given some credit for saying that every lane is a bike lane, and their plan to include bicycling education as part of the expansion of bike facilities is certainly laudable. Then there's this:

"Largely, the plan proposes new bike lanes for almost every new and proposed subdivision around Visalia's city-limits perimeter — but ignores many core traffic areas where bicyclists, often illegally, proliferate."

So they're saying that the heavy traffic areas and those streets that serve numerous and popular destinations aren't going to see any bike lanes. OK, cyclists can deal with that by riding in the lane - that same lane that the city says belongs to them in the first place since "every lane is a bike lane" - and they can reach their destinations.

Moving on...

CBS News has a piece titled "Bicycle Safety: 11 death-defying rules." You just know where this is going from the title alone, but here's the first paragraph:

"Bicycling is dangerous. How dangerous? Each year, cycling-related injuries send more than 500,000 people to the hospital - and more than 700 to the grave. Kids are at special risk. But everyone who rides a bike - child or adult - should be acquainted with basic bicycle safety rules. Here, with help from the National Traffic Safety Administration, are 10 of the most important ones...."

The first 'rule' is the universal wear-your-helmet admonition with the usual unattributed nonsense that it will cut the risk of head injury by 85%. By these standards, taking a shower, walking down a flight of stairs, or eating high-fat foods is a terribly dangerous undertaking.

Finally, down around the eighth or ninth rule, they get around to telling cyclists to obey the rules of the road. Well before that point, however, many will have given up reading the stultifying material.

And lastly...

Larry said that some new guy has been in the cafe a few times looking for Wally and me. Larry said his name is Andy Clerk, or something like that, and from his accent, he may be Canadian. I doubt that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police would come all this way looking for us, especially since the event in question involved nothing more than some lake trout, copious amounts of Canadian whiskey, and some brief public nudity, but we're not taking any chances. Wally and I will be up in the mountains on a fishing trip.

Funny noises

2011-03-08T18:37:00.002-06:00

I was late getting home from work today because Number One Son and I stopped at Graingers to get him some safety glasses. Before we reached the house, Mary called. "The furnace is making funny noises," she said.

I firmly stifled the impulse to ask if the furnace was doing stand-up comedy. It's best not to ask such questions if only for the sake of marital harmony...and hot meals.

"What kind of noise is it?" I asked mildly.

"It's the fan or something. It thumps," she replied. "I just turned it off."

"I'll be home in a few minutes."

The furnace and air conditioner are as old as the house, probably a little over 25 years. Each spring, I give careful consideration to asking a priest to sprinkle holy water over the the air conditioner. He's on my speed dialer just in case either unit needs last rites.

We try to keep up with maintenance, cleaning the A-coil every couple of years, and cleaning the outside AC unit every year. The main fan failed about 6 or 7 years ago, but other than that the furnace and AC have worked almost flawlessly. But strange thumping noises had me worried.

I pulled off the covers and replaced the filter immediately, thinking that perhaps it was banging against the fan housing. When the fan turned back on, the thumping noise resumed.

I placed a quick call to my friend Wade, who does heating and air conditioning work. He said the fan may be out of balance due to dust build up, or the bearings could be bad, allowing it to wobble. "End play is normal," he said, "but you don't want it moving up and down."

The fan would have to come out. That meant removing the controller unit too. Like I said, I've been there before. It's not a terribly difficult job, but it's dirty and it's in a confined, dimly lit space. There's lots of sharp edged sheet metal in there, biding its time and waiting to taste human blood once again.

I loosened the controller and Jordan held it up out of the way while I removed the fan wiring. We managed to get it out without snagging or breaking any wires. Neither of us shed blood.

The problem was immediately revealed. The wiring schematic for the furnace - which had been attached to the inside wall of the unit - had become detached and was sucked into the fan. I cleaned the fan blades with an old toothbrush and it was ready to be installed.

This is the tricky part. The fan hangs from two slots on the underside of the furnace, two slots which are nearly impossible to see even with a couple of flashlights under the fan. It blocks the light. It took half a dozen tries before it went in, with me all the while bent over in the gloom. My arms ached. My back and legs hurt.

I re-connected the wiring and fastened the controller in place. The outer panels went back on and the furnace powered up.

The critical bit - no more thumping. She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is pleased.

Sunday morning in Colliinsville

2011-03-06T14:26:00.003-06:00

.

This first photo isn't from this morning. I took it last Saturday evening at a dance held by The Oklahoma Swing Syndicate (TOSS). They're swing dancing fans who meet each week at a church in Tulsa. I was surprised to see how many people attended that evening. And of course, watching dancers offers numerous photo opportunities. This one was taken while the pair practiced a move, meant to be a lift, but they kept missing it.

Collinsville has a 25mph speed limit on every street in town, unlike most others here in northeast Oklahoma. This is the first time I've seen a Yield to Pedestrians sign anywhere in the area. I don't know if it's in compliance with the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (interesting reading if you suffer from insomnia) but it's heartening to see the signs.

One other thing - Collinsville PD is quite serious about enforcing that 25 mph speed limit. Keep a careful eye on the speedometer if you're going through town.

Many older buildings here are brick, often red brick. Towns throughout the region were constructed at roughly the same time period, so the architecture and building materials are common themes. This is the Collinsville municipal building, formerly the fire house which - in a bit of irony - burned down one night. They built a new fire house and renovated the old one for offices. It's all red brick. Many of the streets are red brick too. They're kind of wavy, but don't have potholes.

As I took these photos, a crew was installing fresh bricks on the west side of this building.

This is the town's train station, now being used as a museum. I don't know if it's open regularly. The area around it is used for storage of the bricks for sidewalks and streets. There's an active railroad track nearby, about a hundred yards east of the station, so there must have been a spur leading here at one time. It's long gone.

There will be more photos over on my Picasa web album, including color versions of those above. I used the Canon A590IS this morning and I set it up to do black and white JPEGS as well as RAW. I have to convert the RAW images over to color JPEGs later today. (The photos are posted as of 4:15 local time. I just discovered that Picasa displays RAW files, though they've been reduced in size from the originals. Still, they look good.)

But first, I need a cup of coffee.

Doctor Wally news

2011-03-05T20:32:00.002-06:00

This is just a heads-up message for regular readers. I'm seriously considering setting Wally loose on an unsuspecting world. Most of the Wally posts have been coming from the Red Dirt Pedalers newsletter, as you can see from the one earlier this week. But I'm thinking about diving back into some of that old material in order to re-post it over on the Examiner.

Dr. Wally would reach another, hopefully larger audience. He really deserves it, especially in light of the upcoming presidential election next year. The last time, you may recall, he ran unsuccessfully for the vice presidency. Recently he's been grumbling about the whole process again, so it's on his mind. He hasn't declared that he'll actually run, though he's soliciting money and numerous young women to assist in that effort. I hope he gets some cash soon, because it will help defer his bar tab at Larry's Cafe. Wally is calling it his "I'm NOT campaigning" headquarters. Larry doesn't mind because all those women help pack the place with free-spending men, especially on weekends.

In fairness, I have to say that I may run into some problems with posting on the Examiner. But I think the fairly straight forward advice pieces, while still containing some humor and satire, will be acceptable to the editor. The stories are another matter.

Other news: I did some wandering in Tulsa today - the first Saturday I've had free in quite a while - so there will be some photos to post probably tomorrow. Meanwhile, go look at these photos on The Mave Site. Here's a sample, and it's the kind of thing I'd like to accomplish along old Route 66:

In the Tulsa City County Library and in the Library of Congress, there are photos from the heyday of Route 66, when Tulsa was the Oil Capital of the World and Art Deco was the rage. I have to admit that I'm fascinated by all those old photos, and I enjoy looking for the old buildings.

Startling discovery in the Goodwill Store

2011-03-02T15:46:00.003-06:00

I habitually stop in the local Goodwill store to look for old cameras, old books, old coffee makers, etc. 'Old' seems to be key. I found this Star Trek Barbie and Ken on display right inside the front door. I've never seen one of these previously, and as a dyed-in-the-wool geek, I just had to take a photo of it. Not buy it, mind you. I'm not that crazy.

The store manager saw me and said that photography isn't allowed in the store. That's OK. It's private property and they can call the shots. At least she didn't demand that I delete the images.

And on reflection, it's a disturbing image. Look carefully and you'll notice that Captain James Tiberius Kirk and Ken are holding hands! I wonder if Barbie knows. For that matter, I wonder if Spock knows. He can do that Vulcan mind meld thing, after all.

Anyway, I'm proud that our local Goodwill shop can be so open and progressive by putting something like this on display. This is Oklahoma, you know.

In other news

2011-03-01T20:16:00.002-06:00

I was listening to the news this morning, a story about American competitiveness and our vaunted ingenuity. The subject was 'the next big thing'. What device or system could we produce that would sell world wide and cement our reputation as the technological leader?

I don't remember who was being interviewed, but he said two things that got my attention. First, he said that American corporations are taxed at to high a rate. OK, that's pretty much dogma from any corporate spokesman. Even if we handed them gobs of money (and we do!) they'd kvetch about their excessive taxes.

Then it got interesting. He said that American corporations could be more competitive in global markets, except that they have difficulty finding suitably trained technical workers.

Do you see the connection? He complains that his taxes are too high, and in the next breath says he can't find educated workers. Excuse me? Doesn't paying those 'excessive' tax rates help to pay for schools, schools that presumably turn out a better educated, better trained workforce? It's in his company's best interest to support the schools that eventually supply his workers.

We're seeing this writ large in Wisconsin, where the governor and the majority party want to slash education spending while claiming that by doing so they'll produce more jobs. More jobs for whom? They're setting up conditions for an education and employment death spiral, as ill-prepared students enter the workforce and good jobs leave the state as employers look for better workers elsewhere. Even worse, those employers who remain will have to re-train workers, adding to their expenses. No doubt the blame will be placed on the public schools and the public school teachers, justifying yet more cuts to a 'dysfunctional' education system.

The post-apocalypse cyclist

2011-03-01T02:18:00.000-06:00

One of my friends is a survivalist. He stocked up on canned goods and other non-perishable foods thinking that the end of civilization is near. And he's asking me questions about what bicycle to use after the world devolves into chaos.

It's a given that sooner or later our civilization will collapse. I lie awake nights thinking about it, and rather than dwell on the admittedly slim chance of nuclear war, a meteor impact, or an invasion of aliens from outer space, I prefer to think about the very real possibility of a zombie apocalypse. Some may scoff, but when you consider that there's probably a grad student somewhere thinking that a zombie chicken would be really funny, working out a survival plan is in our best interests.

Popular culture has given us a few road signs to follow toward Armageddon. I'm thinking about movies like "Sean of the Dead". If you look carefully in the background, zombies are everywhere well before the protagonist becomes aware of them. They're shambling to work and back or waiting in the queue for the bus.

It's true. They're already with us. As evidence, I give you my teenage son and his buddies. They all exhibit slack-jawed empty stares with their ear buds in place as they send endless text messages or play video games. They listen to factory noises and insist that it's music. Communication is through grunts, hand gestures, and a painfully bored expression. Their diet consists of prodigious amounts of snack food, microwaved cheeseburgers, and energy drinks. It's only a matter of time until their conversion is complete. One night they'll run out of Cheetos and switch over to eating brains. I keep my bedroom door locked.

“28 Days Later” should be taken as a cautionary tale about the dangers posed by fast moving zombies. They could run without fatigue due to lactic acid build up in their muscles. So a bicycle would be an essential survival tool. Some would think that a mountain bike would be best for escaping a slavering zombie horde, but I have another suggestion. Any decent commuter bike will accelerate and corner faster than a mountain bike, and since it's most likely to be needed in an urban area, good pavement will be available.

But please don't wait until the menace is nearly upon you, with teeth trying to bite your arm. Get a commuter bike and start training now, this very day, and if you use it to go to work and back, you'll develop those critical skills that can save your life when the zombies attack. Many drivers are zombies already. They just don't know it. You'll be ready when they turn. And if you hear a car emitting a thumpa-thumpa-thumpa loud enough to rattle the windows in nearby buildings, that's probably my son or one of his friends. Try to distract them with a bag of Cheetos, and then sprint as if your life depended on it. It's worked for me.

Ask Dr Wally...

2011-02-28T14:15:00.000-06:00

Dear Dr. Wally

I read an article that urged readers to try nude photography. I enjoy both bicycling and photography. Since it was a relatively warm winter day, I stripped off my clothes, rolled the bike out of the garage, and set off for the park to take some photos.

One of my neighbors screamed and fled into her house. Some people are just overwhelmed by artistic freedom.

Some motorists honked and waved, or at least the ones that didn't rear-end the car ahead of them did.

But I do have some questions for you. Have you tried nude cycling and would you have any advice for potential nude cyclists? And can you recommend an attorney?

Incarcerated in Inola

Dear Jailbird

I have to admit that I have little experience with nude cycling. It's only happened once and it involved copious amounts of alcohol, a bachelor party where I met the woman destined to become my third or fourth ex-wife, and an ill-advised bet. I lost. Let's just leave it at that.

But I can recommend the very best attorney in Broken Elbow, and that's Chester Niebelung. He's the town bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, heads the planning and zoning commission, and sits on the school board. Remarkably, he's never been elected to any position. Instead, he's been appointed to them by a succession of public officials who owed him some favors. Chester's brother, Armand, runs the local paving company among other businesses, and it's rumored that the two brothers know where all the bodies are buried. Literally. If you hire Chester as your attorney, be sure to pay your bill on time!

Dr. Wally

Next time: Bicycling blood-sucking monkeys invade West Mifflin, Pennsylvania.

Old cars

2011-02-27T13:57:00.006-06:00

Almost every Sunday morning, Wade and I have breakfast across the street from this used car lot. I'd noticed a few old cars over there, but who wouldn't notice a Jaguar XKE or some vintage Detroit iron?

This morning, however, I decided to take a closer look. There's a whole series of photos over on my Picasa web album, but I've included a few here.

Way back in the Pleistocene, when I was in high school, these were the cars in the parking lot.

This is a Cadillac convertible about the size of an aircraft carrier. I think it would be too big to fit in my garage. And it's a two-fer. Buy this one, and get another hardtop as a parts car! What a deal!

I think some of these will look good in black and white, so I may tinker with them as time permits. Actually, I've been thinking about photographing some old cars as part of the Route 66 theme, and since many of the images on the Tulsa City-County Library website are also black and white, it's fitting.

This is a Lincoln Continental from the mid-60s. I had a 1964 model in dark blue. It could seat 8 people! Notice the 'suicide doors' in the back and what looks like a trunk. It's not. That was actually the hangar deck of the Battlecar Galactica. Gas mileage was a paltry 3 mpg around town, but it soared to 8 on the highway! There's a 490 cubic inch V8 up front. It didn't accelerate fast, but it just kept going faster. I didn't want to find out what the top speed was. I also didn't like driving the car in the mountains when it was raining. It had vacuum wipers, so if you pressed down hard on the accelerator, the wipers all but quit. It's not a good feeling to be hurtling along while blind.

Better railroad crossings

2011-02-22T20:57:00.003-06:00

Here are some quick photos of railroad crossings that see large numbers of heavy trucks. They're located over by the gravel quarry southeast of Owasso, and they're what's needed on Mingo Road.

This crossing is on 56th Street North and has been in use only a few months.

I don't know what traffic counts are like along this road, but most of it consists of gravel trucks.

This is the same type of crossing, but it's over on 145th Street. It's been in use for years, and as you can see, it shows very little wear and tear.

Trucks descend this hill fully loaded, only to encounter the tracks at the bottom. Before the crossing was improved, it accounted for a couple of flat tires on my bike - before I learned to jam on the brakes HARD, and slow down to a walking pace to cross those tracks!

Finally, and this is totally unrelated to the railroad photos, here's an Owasso fire truck parked outside Reasors last night. I liked the glowing light from the setting sun, and in all honesty, I have a little kid's fascination with fire trucks!

Olympus OM-1 with 28mm f3.5 lens

2011-02-21T17:11:00.003-06:00

This is the same shot as yesterday, only taken on film for comparison.

All these were taken with the Olympus OM-1 and a Olympus G.ZUIKO 28mm f3.5 lens. The 'G' references the number of elements in the lens.

Many of these older buildings along Route 66 will be gone someday.

I was reading one of those interminable film versus digital threads in a forum, with the usual snide comments about how digital cameras and digital imaging is so superior to film. It provoked some thought as to why I enjoy using film cameras so much.

The thread followed a brief description of an alteration to a Yashica Electro 35 that allowed full manual control of the aperture and shutter speed, rather than the aperture priority of the original camera. If you're unfamiliar with the Electro series, you choose the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed according to the amount of light that hits a sensor on the camera front. It's stepless where the camera hack is in discrete intervals. It's also a kludge, with a rotary switch and a bunch of resistors sitting atop the camera.

Put another way, I like my STI equipped Giant, a single speed, and even a fixed gear. The latter two are hardly the cutting edge of bicycle technology, but they're surely a lot of fun!

But why would anyone want to use such an old camera? I've written about this before, and I covered the idea of using technology that was out of my reach back in the day. When I was much younger, I had just one 35mm camera, a Ricoh XR-1 that was a full manual machine with a cast brass body. It was as durable - and heavy - as a tank. I never considered a rangefinder camera, preferring the more 'modern' SLR.

The Yashica Electro changed my way of thinking. The biggest reason is that outstanding lens hanging off the front of the camera. According to some very knowledgeable camera guys, it's equal to more expensive 35mm lenses, and it's vastly superior to most point and shoot digital cameras.

The flea market just west of the traffic circle on Admiral.

Besides, if I accidentally dropped it over the side of a canoe, I wouldn't be out much money and it could be replaced easily.

Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the prints from this Yashica. That's happened with just two other cameras: that Nikon N6006 I bought from George last year, and the Rolleicord V - a medium format camera I rarely use anymore.

Another photo from the flea market.

If I carry the Nikon in a crowd, people notice the large, black, 'professional' camera. Yet a small digital point and shoot or any 35mm rangefinder doesn't attract as much attention. Some people are openly dismissive of any film camera, probably thinking the user is some abjectly poor person who can't afford digital. That's fine. It it helps me stay under the radar, I'll take it.

They do notice the large chrome cameras like the Electro or the Konica Auto S2, my other favorite rangefinder. They're big, flashy, and as obviously retro as a set of Cadillac tailfins, yet most people ignore them too.

I liked all the color, even if it was an overcast day.

I'm trying to take more 'people' pictures and the smaller cameras seem to help with that. Yesterday, I used a full roll of film in the Olympus OM-1 and some of those photos are posted here. The Olympus is a tiny, jewel-like SLR and with a 28mm lens, I can take some wide angle shots that include people. They don't seem to realize they're in the viewfinder because the lens isn't pointed in their direction.

And another thing!

2011-02-20T18:49:00.002-06:00

I found a 28mm f3.5 lens for this Olympus OM-1 at our local Goodwill Store earlier this week. It's in good condition, so I put it on the camera and went through an entire roll of film earlier today. The prints will be ready tomorrow, and as always, I have a CD coming with them.

New photos tomorrow!

I saw the strangest things...

2011-02-20T17:53:00.003-06:00

I've had a stressful week, so what better way to relax than by going out to take photos most of the morning. Sometimes, it gets a little weird. That kid in the middle is my son, Jordan, and those people around him are...well...typical suburbanites. Yeah, that's it, typical. I have no idea why they were doing this and they remained mute. It's just another of life's mysteries.

And I didn't take the picture. Mary took it with Jordan's cellular phone. I did, however, drive around looking for them so I could try to get an interview. No luck.

Who needs Photoshop, Pixia, or Gimp? I did this in plain old MS Paint. If I ever learn how to use those other programs, I'll probably get in trouble.

Here's the bicycle advocacy portion for today. This pothole was forming prior to our two snow storms, but since then it's become deeper and wider. For anyone on two wheels, crossing these railroad tracks is going to be problematic. Sure, wider tires on motorcycles and scooters don't slip sideways as easily as narrow bicycle tires, but the pothole may cause those heavier vehicles to have problems here too.

The railroad crossing is on a slightly built up right of way. This means that as you approach, you cannot really see the roadway between the rails. This slight hump is apparent in the next two photos.

That's a Minolta Autometer IIIF and it's about 6 inches long, nearly as long as the pothole is deep.

Here's a view to the south showing the oblique angle of this crossing. Several cyclists fall here each summer. I've nearly fallen when the rails were wet. The safe way to cross, of course, is at a 90 degree angle, and that's possible provided there isn't much traffic. Motorists don't know or simply don't care that it's illegal to pass within 50 feet of a railroad crossing.

Here's the view looking north.

I'll write something about this for the Examiner, and include a link to the Flickr versions of these photos. They include GPS information.

Panic Week! Day Four

2011-02-17T15:46:00.002-06:00

There's a wonderful bit from Chico Marx, one of the Marx brothers, in which he describes how as a famous Italian aviator he managed to fly across the Atlantic. I can't find the dialog, so I'll paraphrase. You'll have to imagine his fake Italian accent:

So the first time we try to cross the Atlantic ocean, we get maybe about halfway and whaddaya know, we run out of gas and have to turn back. The next time we try to fly across the Atlantic, we get maybe a mile away, and we run outta gas and have to turn back.

So how did you get across?

This time, we put the plane onna boat, and THAT'S how we got across the ocean!

Somehow, that seems appropriate.

The FAA inspection team was in the building today, but they didn't enter my area. Most of us finish up at 2:30, so by 2PM, we thought it was all over. A few minutes after the hour, an inspector walked in with a supervisor in tow. He looked carefully at a list of employees, then said he wanted to see so-and-so. They went across the hall to find the employee, with both crew chiefs and a union observer.

The rest of us alternately eyed the clock and the door. Our acting crew chief returned to tell us that the inspector had concluded his business over there, and he left the building.

Tomorrow, they'll do an out-brief and be gone. We will all be relieved. Understand me, though, because there isn't anything we do that's substantially different when the FAA isn't around. Their job is to see that we adhere both to federal regulations and the company's own rules and guidelines. What makes me nervous is the complexity of all that. I try to stay on top of the paperwork, training, parts sorting, etc.,but there's always a nagging fear that I'll miss something and it will come back to haunt me. Complex regulations have that effect, and as a prime example, take the tax code. Please.

The FAA can always make an unannounced inspection. That probably happens a couple times each year. I could be caught with (gasp!) a coffee cup on my benchtop, or more likely a laptop computer.

So I'll go in to work tomorrow and it will be a little less stressful. I like that. We're already scheduled for overtime on Saturday, but what I've really been thinking about is riding my bike. My knee still hurts, as well as my hip and shoulder, but I'm very, very tempted to ride anyway. When you consider that a bit over a week ago, it was nearly 100 degrees colder here, you can understand the desire to get outside on a bike.

Panic Week! Day Three

2011-02-16T21:21:00.002-06:00

Hoo boy! After the last two days of fun and games, today was actually pleasant.

One of yesterday's questions involved electro-static discharge. It's a serious problem in electronics because static electricity can degrade or destroy components. It's become more serious as devices become smaller. Those memory chips in your cellular phone have more capacity than most early desktop computers, for instance, and a static discharge into one leaves a microscopic crater behind. When the active components are only a few molecules thick, this can kill the device.

So repair areas are designed to minimize any static electricity and allow it to dissipate. Surfaces are mildly conductive to let any charge bleed off.

One problem revolves around having electronic devices like cellular phones, radios, or laptops on the bench. Their plastic cases can produce ESD. I use a netbook to track information on the units I work. I won't mention the name, but they used to have a tagline in their ads, "Dude! You're going to Hell!" Or something like that.

Now, if I were the engineer designing a laptop, I'd see that the case was slightly conductive so that any static charge could go through it to ground rather than through the internal circuitry.

I went to the manufacturer's website to see if any technical information was available. No dice. I tried tech support via an on-line chat with 'Peggy.' It wasn't very helpful. Then I tried calling tech support from the telephone in the shop. Not surprisingly, 'Peggy' answered. I described the problem and the information I needed, and Peggy said he'd get back to me.

That was 12 hours ago. I'm patient, but I'm beginning to suspect that Peggy lied. Hell, indeed.

Panic Week! Day Two

2011-02-15T21:02:00.002-06:00

It started out as a slow day. I arrived at work a little before 6AM. We heard that the FAA inspection team arrived at 6:45. No slackers, them.

Modified stationary panic is actually infectious. Our planner/acting supervisor was wandering around seemingly at random. The ESD/chemicals guy was practically vibrating. And the target for the day seemed to be air pressure.

Yes, air pressure. You know, we use compressed air to blow dust out of electronic units. And some of the manuals specify limits on the pressure. This may seem to be a minor deal, but when the feds come looking, it's important to see that our shop tools conform to manufacturers specs.

I went looking through the manuals for the ground prox warning computer. It didn't have a spec for the air pressure, but I found this gem in the modifications section:

"A microcircuit with a specific die version from a specific manufacturer can possibly have a
single event latchup when hit by a neutron. This modification gives the instructions to
examine and replace these microcircuits as necessary."

That explains so much! I had a computer that started singing "Danke Shoen" over and over. It probably took a hit from a Wayne Neutron, but regardless, it's out in Vegas now doing a lounge act. It left a trail of sequins leading out the door.

(Gosh, that was a long way to go for a joke! Still, it was a better than the zombie jokes.)

Panic Week! Day One

2011-02-14T21:53:00.004-06:00

"Scream" by Jason Prini on Flickr

The FAA is inspecting the base this week, and as is always the case, there's a tiny bit of panic in the air. I think Patrick McManus called this a "modified stationary panic" and if I remember right, it's the kind of panic that induces an overwhelming desire to run while simultaneously causing complete muscle rigidity. Mostly, the victim just vibrates without going anywhere.

Another way to look at it is to remember Shakespeare's title "Much Ado About Nothing." Inevitably, the focus of attention will be on the wrong things. Some of it is almost comical. One guy used the cleanup, commotion, and panic as a means to get out of his cubicle and into a proper office - all under the guise of the 5S program. (This is the latest management fad. Don't make me go into it or I may hurt you.)

We didn't see any FAA inspectors today, despite much gnashing of teeth and tearing of hair. They'll probably appear tomorrow, and then the fun starts for real!

A bit of fun!

2011-02-13T20:04:00.005-06:00

I went out east of town this morning to take some photos in a lovely valley that reminds me of Pennsylvania. Any other time of the year, there's enough foliage to hide the houses all around this spot, and believe me, the houses in these gated additions are huge.

These shots above were taken with the Kodak Z1285. Those below were taken with a Canon 590IS. I couldn't resist shooting some film too. It's still in the Nikon N6006. Just for fun, there's a jpeg from the Nikon taken in the aftermath of our latest snow storm.

I didn't see any deer this time, but the wind was still and I could hear all the birds calling. It's not the same as the dawn chorus that comes later in the year when they're singing their hearts out trying to attract mates. The stillness was exceptional. I could hear traffic a couple of miles away as well as the occasional jet engine as commercial aircraft came and went from Tulsa International.

As you can see, I love that stone bridge. And I love the backlight along that stream early in the morning. I'm planning to go out there again in the spring when all the trees bud out. Everything will be bright green, not the deeper, darker green of mid summer. It should look very nice when backlit.

For comparison, here are two shots from the fall at the same location.

I'm not entirely certain, of course, but I think this is how you go ice fishing in Oklahoma.

Snowpocalypse: Part dos

2011-02-09T15:57:00.003-06:00

I had to force the door open due to the snow drift.

Here I was thinking that civilization would end as we were buried under a horde of ravenous zombies. Instead, we're going to be buried under a glacier here in Oklahoma. We all may become Canadians, eh.

Taken early Wednesday morning as snow continued.

I spent three hours shoveling snow from the driveway, the front porch, the patio, and a pathway to the bird feeders in the redbud tree. Those birds sure eat a lot. I'd be happier if they had jobs and didn't hang around here all day. When we were checking out from Atwoods with sixty dollars worth of bird feed, I said, "Gosh! Those birds are eating better than me!" It brought a chuckle from the cashier and a withering glare from She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.

Heavy snow fall is more appealing in poetry than in reality.

One nice thing - since the temperature is in the teens this snow is very light making it easy to shovel. That also makes for rapid accumulation of drifts if the wind comes up. Fortunately, high pressure will make the wind drop off tonight, but it will also allow temperatures to drop below zero. I may consider hiding under the blankets until spring arrives.

Dear Doctor Wally...

2011-02-03T12:54:00.000-06:00

This is Wally's column from the Red Dirt Pedalers "Wheel Issues."

Dear Dr. Wally

wally

I was riding home from school a few days ago when a car ran a stop sign and almost hit me. The driver never even looked my way since he was holding a cell phone to his ear. What can we do to protect ourselves from distracted drivers?

Shaken in Choteau

Dear Shakey

I'll forgo the usual snark and give it to you straight - short of staying off the public roads, there's little we can do to protect ourselves from distracted drivers. Obviously, we need to stay alert and be aware of our surroundings in all directions. A rear view mirror is a good long-range warning device, but in close we need to both look and listen.

Traveling on the public way involves a kind of social compact. We each exercise due care, that is, we look out for ourselves and others, and we assume that all other road users are doing the same. When they do not, as in the case of your self-absorbed driver and his cell phone, we're angry and frustrated because that person is being irresponsible.

Sadly, however, when the injured party is a cyclist, there's a tendency to blame the victim. "He should have known that cycling is dangerous! He shouldn't have been on that busy road, even if he was on the shoulder." Police, prosecutors, and judges exhibit this anti-cycling bias far too frequently.

But there is some good news, and that's the simple fact that road cycling isn't particularly dangerous when we follow the rules of the road. That means obeying traffic control devices, riding with traffic, and using lights and reflectors if we ride at night. All of this stacks the odds in our favor. It can't eliminate risk, but it goes a long way toward minimizing it.

Dr. Wally

Next month: A cyclist's guide to surviving the zombie apocalypse.

'Separated' bike lanes

2011-02-02T12:51:00.002-06:00

This is my column from the Red Dirt Pedalers "Wheel Issues".

I've been reading about various ideas to separate bicyclists from motor traffic using different types of 'protected' bike lanes, but I came away wondering, protected from whom?

Cycle tracks are popular with the let's-turn-our-cities-into-Copenhagen crowd, but absent the density of European cities, enormous taxes on motor vehicles, and exorbitant fuel prices, it'll never happen unless we tear down our cities and start over. In all honesty, some urban planners would be happy to do so, substituting high density housing for suburbs and sprawl. My grandparents arrived here from Europe and lived in high density multi-family housing for a time. They called it a slum. We still do. The planners overlook the problems that cycle tracks introduce, mainly increased numbers of collisions at intersections and between cyclists and pedestrians. Shouldn't we learn from other's mistakes rather than try to emulate them?

Blue bike lanes and magic paint. The theory here seems to be if the application of a magic white paint stripe improves a cyclist's lot, applying even more paint will make things even more better. More paint equates with more magic, apparently. Blue seems to be the accepted color, but one has to wonder if some other colors may offer enhanced magical properties. I vote for chartreuse, or since I ride a Bianchi, the more traditional celeste green.

Protected bike lanes between parked cars and the sidewalk. I saw a video of one of these from New York in which an experienced cyclist was horrified at the risks. Pedestrians came from both sides, some of them obscured by vehicles. Car doors opened, taking up several feet of the lane. Deliverymen pushed carts and people walked their dogs. Wrong-way cyclists wobbled along, oblivious to everyone else. In an emergency, there's nowhere to go. If a pedestrian steps out in front of a cyclist, his choices are to hit the curb, hit a parked car, or hit the pedestrian.

Washington, DC just opened a protected bike lane down the center of a street, apparently in reaction to the obvious defects when such lanes are located between cars and the curb. It may be a better idea, at least until you have to leave the lane in order to make a turn.

Vertical separation devices. A few cities have installed plastic bollards between their bike lanes and motor vehicle lanes. At first, this may seem to be an improvement over the traditional magic paint stripes, but in practice it's worse. The bollards are made from thin plastic tubing attached to an adhesive base. They're about three feet high, perfect for getting caught in spokes if a cyclist has to maneuver quickly. They also make inviting targets for some motorists who mow them down frequently. Pittsburgh used these for lane dividers in construction zones and truckers delighted in running over them. Believe me, you do not want to get one of these under your front tire!

As cyclists and taxpayers, we shouldn't be happy with whatever second rate facility the local planners devise. We should demand genuine safety rather than the mere illusion of safety. We shouldn't have to discover what works through trial and error.

Blizzard photos

2011-02-02T10:14:00.002-06:00

Here's the link to my Picasa album of blizzard photos. It's so cold outside that it hurts to remove my gloves in order to operate a camera. And the camera itself isn't working well in these temperatures. The motors are very slow, so I keep it inside my parka. Still, with only a minute or two in the wind, my fingers hurt, then went numb. That's a very bad sign of impending frostbite. I didn't spend much time outside, though I still have to shovel the driveway today.

The blizzard of '11

2011-02-01T08:22:00.007-06:00

The view from our front window.

First, my apologies for the photos. It's so stinking cold, I don't want to go outside. All of these were taken through windows. Once the snow stops, I might go wander the neighborhood - on foot. Nothing is moving on the street. Any additional photos will go on my web album and I'll provide a link to it here.

The forecasters have been talking about this storm for a few days. I've learned to sort of pay attention, but in all honesty, they often have a hard time getting it right more than a day or two ahead of time.

They were spot on with this one.

I awoke at the usual time, a little after 4AM. I'd talked with my crew chief and supervisor yesterday about taking a vacation day if the weather was atrocious. Outside my bedroom window there's a 4 foot deep snowdrift lying between the houses. I made the call and went back to bed.

I was up again around dawn. While I dressed, it seemed cooler than normal in the house. Sure enough, the hall thermostat said it was 55F. The furnace wasn't on and the thermostat was dead. It's a Honeywell programmable unit. I said a silent prayer hoping it didn't require AAA batteries. Luckily, it takes double As and I have lots of those. With fresh ones installed, the heater came on in a few minutes.

The dog wanted to go out. I tried to open the front door but a snowdrift across the porch prevented it opening more than a few inches. So I was off to the garage for the snow shovel. Duchess pranced. She really had to go.

The view to the south. This is the best visibility.

I carefully forced the door open about 18 inches. Duchess and I squeezed out. I shoveled while she quickly found a spot to anoint. The temperature is in the low teens with a strong north wind making the windchill well below zero. Despite the gloves, my fingers lost feeling within a couple of minutes.

Birds mobbing the feeders outside the patio door.

Bird fans lined up at the patio door.

I'm watching the local television storm coverage. The Red Cross is taking in stranded motorists. Owasso's emergency services are having problems with the roads. Even the plows are getting stuck because they can't see the sides of the road and keep driving into ditches. Let's hope there aren't any fire or ambulance calls today. We've been lucky in that regard so far.

The heater is working and I have a fresh pot of coffee brewing. It's a good morning for pancakes or waffles. I haven't made waffles for quite a while, so that may be my entertainment today. Today is also Lyndsay's birthday. She was born during an ice storm, so perhaps a blizzard is appropriate.

Poking around on a Sunday morning

2011-01-24T20:57:00.004-06:00

Detail, the Adams Building

Sunday morning dawned cold and gray. The temperature was in the high thirties. That would be the warmest part of the day. The wind steadily increased from the north.

Morton Comprehensive Health Center, Lansing Park

Wade and I had breakfast at IHOP as usual. By the time we left, it was noticeably colder. We shivered in the parking lot while discussing a minor point about camera lenses, but gratefully dove into our cars to get out of that wind.

I went home and put on a heavier jacket. Then I went off to downtown Tulsa for some photos.

Tulsa's dilapidated armory at the Fairgrounds

I found some interesting buildings, but in all honesty, it was so cold I didn't want to spend much time outdoors. Despite multiple layers and a windproof jacket, I was chilled to the core. I even stopped at QT for a cup of coffee. It didn't help.

These are just three of the day's photos. The rest are on my Picasa web album.

For George...

2011-01-20T18:19:00.003-06:00

I was poking around in St. John's Hospital while Mary was a patient there. I came across this fire extinguisher cabinet in a hallway off the main lobby. I don't know if this is Art Deco or Art Nouveau, and frankly it's not a good photograph. The cabinet may have contained a fire hose at one time, given the age of the building, but I wasn't about to open it to take a look. What stuck me about the door was the obvious concern for a pleasing artistic design in something as mundane as a utility cabinet.

St. John's has a collection of porcelain figurines in the main lobby. I walked by them several times before really taking notice. That's probably not unusual as people in hospitals tend to be preoccupied.

Mary complained about the hospital food. Lyndsay agreed that it was pretty bad. But I ate in the cafeteria once - just once in the whole time we were there - and I had some very good kielbasa and sauerkraut. Maybe the Polish crew was working in the kitchen that day. I was a happy camper.

All these photos were taken with my little Kodak Z1285. When I have some free time, I may go back down there to take some better photos.

More photos along old Route 66

2011-01-19T20:59:00.005-06:00

Much of the city of Tulsa was built during the Art Deco period in the 1920s and 30s. Some of it can be seen along old Route 66, like this building. I was playing with the Nikon N6006 in the matrix metering mode just to see how it responded. I'm pleased with the results.
This is possibly an old filling station surrounded by newer construction. These steeply pitched roofs are common in both business and residential building throughout Tulsa. Again, since this scene is largely backlit, I wanted to see how the metering handled it.

This is a filling station in Owasso. The exposure worked out well and the autofocus operated properly in the low light.

This one has lots of contrast, making the focusing job easier for the camera.

This is our most senior cat, Mittens, who is about 19 years old. It was taken in the living room as she sat on the arm of the sofa. The lens was probably wide open and the shutter speed was fairly low. The depth of field is very shallow. Mittens doesn't move around much, though I was lucky to catch her awake. At her age, the day consists of eating, dozing in the sun, or sleeping on the sofa.