Enid, Tornado Alley

When I was in Michigan I thought it would be fun to take a trip with the Storm Chasers. I have always had an interest in the storms in Michigan. I relished the power of the storms and wanted to know more about how they form and stuff. But I was lazy and other things occupied my mind in between the storms. But everytime there was a storm I had to hold myself back from standing out in the middle of the storm. I had to remind myself to be sensible and not tempt fate.

So then Dave up and makes me move to Enid, Oklahoma. The center of extreme storms and tornadic activity. I am both excited to be in the middle of these wild storms and scared. I guess that is good. Cautiousness is a good thing. I find myself watching the interactive map online and during the worse part of the storm, one of the TV stations out of Oklahoma City has full coverage of the storm with storm chasers right in the midst of the storm giving back information.

I think I am still lazy and will not "study" about the storms, but I do like learning about them through listening to the meteorologists and watching the interactive map of the storms.

This will be interesting living in Enid, OK. I do think I will get a small suitcase packed with some extra clothes, food for Riley, some of our medications, and maybe the backup drive that I purchased that has all our computer files on it, just in case there is a tornado or even a fire. Fires seem to be another natural (or unnatural) disaster that happens frequently in OK.

i must not eat the cookies

I went to the store yesterday just before the major part of the storm hit (see pictures below) and bought groceries. But I forgot to get the 100 calorie snack cookies for Dave. So I told him I would make cookies. I made some old-fashioned sugar cookies. They are are pretty good. I have to tell myself they are not here, they are not in the house, no, we have no cookies.

oklahoma - saturday 2/28

Well, we are still in Oklahoma. I don't quite know how we are doing. Dave seems to be settling in to his job. He is getting to write articles. He has a regular column every Saturday and they can be read on the internet at http://enidnews.com/.

Since I work at home I not able to make friends as easily. So I feel a little isolated. I just need to find the right thing to do to get out and meet people. I have lots of ideas, but haven't settled on one yet.

It is also hard to be so far away from my family. Aydan turned 1 on Thursday and today Kari and Mark had a party for him. I hope they took lots of pictures.

Tonight I consoled myself by making a version of Chi-Chi's seafood chimichanga. It didn't have the distinctive taste, but it was good. Earlier in the week, I had made chicken chimichanga's and they were good also.

Now I am making french bread. I hope to make french toast for breakfast for Dave and I tomorrow. Then I think we are going to go hiking and then possibly eat at a restaurant we found out that way. Sundays are nice because I get to spend time with Dave.

another gorgeous day in Oklahoma

With Sunday the only day Dave and I have both have off from work, we try to find something to do together that we both enjoy. But a lot of things are closed on Sunday in Enid, OK and if we want to do things outside, the weather sometimes doesn't cooperate. It did today.

We didn't have anything planned. We did have breakfast planned. We used to enjoy going out to eat for breakfast because it got us out of house and it was usually cheap. Since moving to Enid, we have been trying to find a good breakfast spot. There is no such thing. We have tried every place. IHOP, Wee Too Restaurant, Raymie's Restaurant, the Dutch Pantry and we cannot find another place that has breakfast on Sunday. Yesterday we thought we would try the Willow Inn (not an Inn). The internet said that it was open on Saturdays, not Sundays. Nope, not open. From the looks of the place I doubt the breakfast would have been acceptable.

So we have decided to give up on breakfasts. I will start cooking our favorite breakfast meals and try different recipes for breakfast. When the weather is warmer we will try to eat our breakfast outside. To get out and way from the apartment, we will have to do other things. Today we started with poached eggs, hash browns, bacon and english muffins.

So with nothing concrete in mind, we headed out at about 11 a.m. to see what we could find to do. We started driving north on U.S. 81. I got out the map and the GPS and noticed that we were headed to Kansas. At U.S. 11 I told Dave he had three options, north to Kansas, east to Ponca City, and west to the Great Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge. He wanted me to decide. I said west and I am glad I did. What a nice spot we found. We found a 1.25 mile nature trail with marshes, woods, and a lake. I didn't bring my camera, which is a shame because we saw an opossum, an armadilla, a herd of deer, a woodpecker, and lots of ducks and geese (mallards, wood ducks, and Canadian geese). Definitely a place that we will return to many times. As the seasons change the scenery will change.

walking still

Well, I am doing pretty good with the walking. I have been walking almost every day the track has been open. I think I only missed one day. Now I have to figure out how to get Dave there. I know he wants to lose weight, but he hasn't figured out when he get go over there during the day before he goes to work.

And I haven't lost any weight. That is a bummer, but I am not going to give up.

On another note, the tornadic weather did not come our way here in Enid. The sky got pretty dark and a little rain and some wind. But that is all.

Exercise - day 3

Well, I have go to the activity center three times now. Hopefully I will keep it up.

On another note, Dave and I have been married for five years now.

Exercise

Starting a resolution. I will walk at the Activity Center every day that I can. There is an church across the street from our apartment complex (about two blocks away) where we can walk on a track and use exercise equipment (if we want to). They open at 7 a.m. and close at 9 p.m. most days. I am going to try to walk first thing in the morning. I am already. I bought a 2 gb MP3 player and loaded it with music to walk to. I think I have the right shoes. We will see how much my feet hurt afterwards. The track seemed to have a shock absorbing type of material on it, so that should help. I have to walk 15 times around the track for a mile. I might have to get a counter or something, or just make sure that I walk for 30 minutes or so.

Hiking in Glass Mountains

Dave and I went exploring today and had a little adventure. The Glass Mountains are called this because of the gypsum and selenite cause the sun to reflect and make the mesas look like they have glass on them.

We wanted to climb to the top of the mesa. There seemed to be stairs to the top. But at the very top, the steps stopped and there was just rock to climb and it was fairly steep. I think that we were more worried about how to get down once we got up. Both of us are out of shape and need a little more conditioning. But still it was disappointing to get almost to the top. After we climbed back down, we decided to hike around the valley a little. Then we went back to the car and got our lunch to eat. The PB&J sandwiches hit the spot.

Then we thought it would be good to explore some more. We found a path. At least we thought it was a path. But it turns out it was a small creek bed and as we walked along it it became slightly muddy. Then all of a sudden Dave stepped into a very muddy spot and sunk into the mud up to his ankle with one foot. While pulling out his foot, his shoe stayed in the mud and his other foot sunk into the mud. We were laughing quite hard by this time. Dave got out of his other shoe so that now he was on dry ground in her stocking feet and his two shoes were buried in the mud. I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my pant legs and went into the mud to get Dave's shoes after we tried unsuccessfully to tried to pry the shoes out of the mud with our walking sticks, but they were stuck too tightly. I was unsuccessful. Dave's shoes are still in the mud, left for posterity.

We headed back to the car, barefooted and sock footed, carrying my muddy shoes. My feet were cold and caked with mud. We cleaned off our feet as much as we could and threw my dirty shoes in the trunk.

Exploring with Dave is always an adventure. Stay tuned for next weeks' adventure.

If you find time, check out the pictures of Glass Mountain.
http://s525.photobucket.com/albums/cc331/koalahug15/Glass%20Mountain%20Oklahoma/

Xmas in Oklahoma - Kingfisher Lights

Here I am in my Xmas finest and new hairdo. This was last Sunday when we went to Dave's boss's open house.








Tonight we went to the town of Kingfisher, about 40 miles south of Enid. They have a large light display. So we decided to go see it after we had a lovely dinner of ham, macaroni and cheese, corn bake, and crescent rolls.










This is a swinging walking bridge that is very well lighted.

This is a picture of some of the lights along the driving road, but taken from the swinging bridge.

Another shot of the swinging bridge.

I tried to get a picture of the lights as we drove through the lighted arch.

Life is good

I found some shoe inserts that make me heel not hurt. I am happy now.

Also, Dave bought me a new purse. It is awesome.

http://www.travelonbags.com/7283.html

It is so comfortable. I can wear it while I am driving, shopping, walking, and it has compartments for everything. Thanks Dave.

pictures of apartment in Enid

I thought I would let you see that we did get some snow here in Enid. Of course, it is gone now. The first picture is Dave scraping the snow off the car. The second is our front door. The third is a picture of a pretty tree across the parking lot. The fourth is a picture of our unit from a little farther away. And the fifth is Dave at the mailbox, not far from where I took the fourth picture.

Xmas in Oklahoma

We are getting prepared to have our first Christmas in Enid. We have our scant decorations set up. Tomorrow we will get the Xmas cards set up to send out and do some online shopping. We will have to get creative this year to "spend" Christmas with our family.

I want to get a menu set up for Dave and I. Probably ham and macaroni and cheese and some appetizers.

Right now I am just waiting for Dave to come home from work. Probably won't be home for another hour and a half.

my political opinion

My political opinion.

The government is going to heck in a handbasket. I think that the arrest of the Illinois governor is just the tip of the iceberg. I believe there are many, many political figures that have been getting away with shady and illegal things for quite a few years and they are getting bolder. Now some of them are getting caught. I predict that we will find out that Obama is one of these people. He sure seems to be linked to quite a few of them. How can one man have that many acquaintances that are on the take or doing illegal things or just are not nice people without him being like those friends. And I think things are going to get worse before they get better. Wait that is what Obama said? Does that mean he knows what I just suspect? And just to weigh in on the automakers bailout - NO, do not bail them out.

explain to me like I am an 8-year-old

The Office

Michael - "Explain to me like I am an 8-year-old." "Okay, now explain to me like I am a 5-year-old."

I am sad - miss detroit

This is the first real sadness that I have noticed. I am intermittently watching the MAC Championship game on the TV. The game is played at Ford Field in Detroit. If we were still living there, I would be on the field taking pictures and Dave would be in the press box. Then they showed the people ice skating downtown. I have never done that, but it made me wistful. Crazy I know. I miss my family, but I get to talk to them and I will have the web cam going soon, so I will see the grandkids and they will see me. Maybe we can even do a show and tell at Christmas.

The saga of the critters - stuffed and otherwise.

Charly gave us two little stuffed animals to keep us safe on our trip. They seemed pretty comfortable in the car and didn't complain much.



When we got to the apartment, we showed them around. They seemed to like the fireplace. Although today the wind is blowing a lot and making the fireplace flue crash and bang, so they are in the bedroom listening to music so that they aren't scared.



Riley the green-cheek conure also had a good time in the car. After arriving at the apartment, he decided he wanted a bath, so I got a picture and a video of his first bath in the new apartment.

Then we went to Kari's on the way to Oklahoma

On our way to Oklahoma, we stopped at Kari and Mark's to see the grandkids. Kari had prepared chili and corn bread and hotdogs. The chili was delicious, but a little spicy for my taste. Dave probably would have eaten more if we weren't going to be cooped up in a car for many, many hours together.

Charly gave us two little stuffed animals when Kari told her to tell us goodbye and that she wouldn't be seeing us for a while. See the next post.

Packing before our move

Mindy and Luke came over on the Saturday before we left for Oklahoma so I could see Luke and to help pack. Luke kept us all busy. Kari also came over to help pack.

I still have to get the pictures to post

Well, the pictures are still in my camera. I know, it isn't that difficult to take the memory card out of the camera and upload to the computer, but right now it seems like a lot. I promise I will get to it. Probably tomorrow, but don't hold me to it.

It has been a nice day. Dave had the day off so we could hang out together. We went to breakfast and then drove around Enid checking out the sites. Dave tried to find the spots that his editor showed him, but it took us a while.

We also checked out an Italian restaurant to see if their pizza was good. It was pretty good.

We then came home and rearranged the living room and emptied a box or two.

I have a list of positives about Enid and the new apartment:

• Almost unlimited garbage bin.
• Drains that drain faster than the house in DH.
• Larger bathroom.
• Malls within 2 minutes of apartment.
• Warmer weather.
• Fireplace in the apartment (probably won't use it, but you never know)

Oklahoma move part 2

Well, we are here. I wanted to blog sooner than this, but it has been crazy. I have pictures to post and stories to tell. So much to say, so little time to get it all said.

A quick recap: We had everything packed by 10 a.m. on Friday. The guys who were going to load the truck for us came about 20 minutes later. Mike came about 10:10 or so. He was a wonderful help. Then Dad and Uncle Tom came so Dave could go with them to take their car to the airport parking. By the time the got back from the airport, the truck was loaded. Mike left for Lansing with the couch and loveseat and we all went to the UHaul place to get the autotransporter attached to the truck and the Hyundai on the autotransporter. Then Dad and Uncle Tom took off for Oklahoma. Dave and I went back to the house to finish closing it up and then we were on our way. We arrived in Oklahoma on Saturday evening. The moving men to unload the truck came Sunday morning. Dad and Les flew back to cold Detroit Sunday evening. We unpacked most of Monday. Tuesday we went to work, me to my take-a-long job and Dave to his new job.

I will be filling in the blanks in future posts. The stopover at Kari and Mark's, the fall I took on my front porch, the misadventures of Les and Tom and all the aches and pains that have accompanied the move.