Busy, busy.....

Wow, it's been a crazy month! We are closing in on the end of our fiscal year at work which means it's budget time again. Combine that with the fact that we are coming in right at our annual goals and it is just utter insanity at the work place. Where I work, meeting our goals is not an option. Peoples lives depends on our ability to meet our goals and commitments. It seems to get harder and harder as each year passes. While I struggle however I can to help meet our goals, I'm also responsible for putting together a $9 million dollar budget. All of this equals a lot of stress.

The wonderful news is that my wife is back working and loves her job. Unfortunately, she ended up with a shift opposite the hour I work. That means we end up with about 12 hours a week together. She is so excited to be back at work and loves the work so I don't think she feels the impact of our time away yet. I had grown used to having her to come home to each day. She balanced my life. I really miss her being here.

Hopefully, I will have time for some photography and geocaching here in the near future. It hasn't hit that miserably hot time of the year yet so it is still pleasant outside at times. Although, the humidity can be a killer with all the rain we have received!

I did get a nice photo a couple of weeks ago of the new arena they are building here in Tulsa. It will be nice to have a place where bigger name entertainers are willing to come.

Smokin'....

I did my first smoke of the year this weekend. Like geocaching, it was a low priority for the past year as we worked through my wife's illness. Usually, I smoke year round but it has been at least a year since I fired up the smoker. I spent the evening Friday getting the smoker ready to go. I also prepped the brisket by trimming and covering it with mustard and a dry rub. It was then wrapped in plastic wrap and placed back in the fridge.

Got up yesterday morning at around 0600 to get the smoker started and the meat loaded. Once the smoker was up to temp, I placed the brisket on to smoke. I like to smoke food the old fashion way...with real fire and wood. I think the food is better that way. I have tried electric smoking and it just wasn't for me. I am the type of person that gets a lot of pleasure from tending to the food and fire. To me, that is half the fun. After the brisket had smoked for about six hours, I added a split chicken for the wife. She is not big on meats but does enjoy chicken on occasion.



The brisket went twelve hours and the chicken smoked for six. I was very pleased with the results. The brisket was very tender and tasty. The chicken just about melted in your mouth it was so tender. Paired up with a little potato salad, baked beans, and some Head Country Barbecue sauce it made for a great dinner.

Geocaching!

After a long break, I finally went geocaching Sunday!! Yes, I am excited about it. Between my wife being so sick last year and my MS, I did not get hardly any caching in this last year. Now that our lives are pretty much back in order, I can start caching again. I traded my Lowrance H2Oc some time ago for a new, in the box, Garmin 60CSx. It has pretty much gone unused since I made the trade. Needless to say, it got a nice test drive yesterday. Our first cache was MnM Urban Jungle. It was relatively close to home and new since my last time caching. We were able to park fairly close and walk to the cache. Mike spotted it first. It was a nice size ammo can. We didn't take anything but we left a few trinkets. Here is a view from near the cache.



Next, we headed for Fenced In. We were able to locate the clever hide quickly. From there, we headed over to Fitness Walk - West Bank (South). They don't call this one Fitness Walk for no reason! It was a bit of a hike in to the cache. Trust me, I need the exercise so I am not complaining! We ended up hitting three caches and made thee finds. I am so impressed with the Garmin 60 CSx. I loved my Lowrance but (as much as I hate to admit it) the Garmin is just a all around better unit. That said, it should be as it is about 33% more expensive. I was fortunate to get such a good trade. I traded a Garmin eTrex Legend (older model) and my H2Oc for the 60CSx so I think I ended up with a good deal as the 60CSx had not even been opened. The two units I traded were in good shape but well used.

As soon as I get more time with the new Garmin, I will post a review. Like I said, I'm quite impressed so far. It is a VERY accurate unit.

While we were out, we swung by Riverside Airport and did a little photography. There was a B-17 visiting that had caught our eyes.

Uneventful...

It has been an uneventful week here in Tulsa Oklahoma. Work was work with nothing interesting to break the blahs. Lisa is enjoying her new job, though. The training academy at EMSA is about six weeks and involves a lot of learning and testing. She had two major testing events this week and did well on both in spite of the stress. She did a ride out Friday night and from what she told me the calls are the same as they were back when we were both paramedics....alcohol and assaults for the most part.

Even the weather was uneventful this week. I guess that is a good thing for most people. As weird as it seems, I really enjoy severe weather. It is not because I have never been touched by severe weather. I have been in a tornado and my grandparents lost their home to a tornado when I was a child. I was old enough to remember everything. We got their the day after the tornado hit. I remember walking around in shock at the destruction. I'd never wish that on anyone. All that said, I'm facinated by tornadoes, hail, lightning, and the likes.

We did have one storm blow through on Wednesday, I think. I got a nice photo of some scud clouds after the center of the storm had passed.

Party

My closest friend's wife had a birthday this last weekend. We gathered at their house and celebrated the occasion. A good time was had by all and I got some nice photos in the process. We shot a little pool and I did not do well at all! I've never been the best pool shooter but I was ever worse than usual. Mike romped me badly.



After we tired of playing pool, we moved outside to his fire pit where we built a fire and enjoyed our drinks in the cool evening air. Fortunately, he lives in the country so we can enjoy this activity without alarming anyone.



All in all, it was a great evening and we really needed a wind down session after a rough week at work. We had our national auditors in for the whole week and it was quite stressful!

Movie Night

We had the whole family piled on the bed last night watching a movie. By whole family, I mean me, my wife, and the two dogs. My wife and I were not able to have children so we went the dog route instead. I think we both grew up loving animals so it is only natural that we would have pets now. Winston and Delia are like children to us. Most likely, we are closer to them than most people are to there children. How many people sleep with their 12 and 14 year olds? I had the camera out and decided to take advantage of the situation.

Dog Parts-Nose


I had my Tokina 100mm lens on the camera so it forced me to be a bit creative and I did a series of close-up shots. I ended up with a bunch of photos that I could not help calling "Dog Parts". I had fun and ended up with some unique photos of the pups!

Dog Parts-Toes

Weather Part III...

This spring is really getting started with a bang! Once again, we had more severe weather. The first round last night was mostly a rain and lightning event. I decided to brave the lightning and take some photos. I was very impressed with the D80! I have been shooting digital since around 1992 and noise has always been a battle with long exposures. Even with my last DSLR, noise would frequently ruin my long exposure photographs. I set up the camera on the tripod and took about twenty 30 second exposures. The D80 does an excellent job handling noise. I have read some less than flattering comments about the D80 and noise, but I was pleasantly surprised. Here is the first good capture I made:



It was the only cloud to ground lightning caught. The next was a decent cloud to cloud lightning capture. Needless to say, I'm still very happy with the Nikon D80. We had another wave of storms that hit around 3:30 in the morning. Being that it came with golfball size hail and tornado sirens, it was a lot less fun!