Category: Oklahoma

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A Little Snow in Oklahoma (Post #444) 2/6/2014

 

crownheights

We have had what passes for winter weather in Oklahoma the past week. This is a picture of my drive through Oklahoma City’s Crown Heights neighborhood on the way to VZDs for lunch on Tuesday. You can see what’s left of a light snow from a few days before.

9degrees

This morning I woke up to 9ºF, light winds (thank God), and very dry snow falling. I snapped a picture and took a short video that wasn’t worth the trouble of setting it up. 9ºF is so cold that the little ceramic heater I have set up in the Range Rover can’t keep the snow off the windows. It’s probably time to upgrade the little bugger next year. I like to get into a warm car in the morning and I don’t like scraping ice.

dogs

When I got home last night I was greeted by Sophie and my son’s dog Bo. He had managed to get one of their blankets stuck on his head and he was dragging it behind him like a cape. I wonder how long he’d been doing that. In this picture you can see Sophie greeting me with what can only be described as a “wailing cry, punctuated with slight growls”. She is talking to us. I imagine she is telling us how happy she is that we are home and how much she missed us and about all the people and dogs that passed behind the house during day. It goes on for 5 minutes or more. The more you talk to her, the more she goes on. She usually stops when I give her a “final pat” on the back and tell her “that’s enough”.

I have to confess, I quit paying attention to the weather forecasters on Sunday of this week. I have to mention that they refrained from telling us that we were all going to die. They have actually said that in the recent past. Our news channels are all trying to sell commercial time for cars and furniture and will say just about anything to get you to turn in to the next broadcast. You’ve read my Snowpoxyclipses posts 2009’s Snowpocalypse, and 2011’s Snowpocalypse 2: Electric Boogaloo so you know what they are capable. We are all lucky to still be alive after those weather events. wink, wink

winter-weather-forecast-morgan-550x394
You have to have some serious stones to tell your viewers there is a 50-50 chance of something happening. You might die, or maybe not.

The Big White Bus performed excellently today. I saw several lesser vehicles spinning their wheels and several less sure drivers putting along on the interstate. I try not to be annoying and I give a wide berth when I drive in this type of mess. It just proves the point that when you are picking out tires PRICE is the LAST THING you should be concerned about. Performance is far more important. My current set of Firestone’s have the Revo 2 rubber in them and I’m pretty sure Spiderman is jealous of the grip these tires provide.

Stay warm, thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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#Hibernot (Post #439) 1/28/2014

What a great bit of advertising. I love the dog not moving when called with that, “I’m not getting back in the truck” defiance and little girl at the end trudging on behind her mum. Where do I get a #Hibernot bumper sticker? I’m all in.

I first saw this video on the Hooniverse website. I snagged this snippet from Land Rover UK’s website explaining Hibernot (Land Rover UK).

Winter. Hibernate? No Chance. #Hibernot

#Hibernot is about embracing the British winter, about enjoying winter in all its glory.

Explore what other people have been getting up to, tell us what #Hibernot means to you and search #Hibernot trails in your local area.

Doesn’t that make you want to go out in the 30 mile per hour winds with 48 mph gusts and experience the -10 F wind chill of the southern plains circa January 26th? Well no. But it does make me want to take my Land Rover somewhere remote and get out and enjoy, if only for an hour, the crisp clean air of winter and the sting of winter cold. The sting that reminds you of February, 1987 the winter that you stood in knee deep water running barbed wire for Dr. Kammerlocher. The sting that reminds you of the weekends you stood on the back of a M110 howitzer in freezing rain while serving your country in the United States Marine Corps Reserve. The sting that reminds you of camping with your friends (just for the fun of it) in period clothing from the 1750’s on the the Javine Farm near Barnsdall, Oklahoma when it dipped to 12 F overnight. The sting that reminds you of the cold air and snow down on the river below the dam at Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas when you took Mrs. Okierover on her first camping trip in 2013. Simply, hell yes.

Hibernot means not shunning exposure the elements, but embracing them. You would not know winter if you did not have summer. If sweat had never run down your brow while you were standing in the 120 F heat of the high desert of 29 Palms, you could never appreciate the winter blizzards on the southern plains.

We will never be as “hard” as we thought we once were back in our youth. We will never be as foolhardy again either. So get out and enjoy the winter. Get out and let the snow or cold rain fall on you with a “devil may care” (Idiom) attitude. Then get in your Land Rover, turn on the heater, and if they still work your heated seats, and drive to a coffee house or diner and get a warm drink, then drive home remembering the good old days.

Toby Keith said, “I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was.” (Youtube video)

Get out and enjoy your old self.

Thanks for reading, Happy Rovering, and Hibernot.

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Ice on the Southern Plains (Post #423) 12/21/2013

We were blessed again last night with yet another ice storm. An inch of ice was predicted, I think we got 3/4 of an inch here in Norman. The bands of temp changes from freezing to thawing affected the ice in an interesting way by freezing then thawing again giving the ice a shattered look. The sides of the tires look like china plates.

These little storms are exactly why I wired the Range Rover with an extension cord. This is so I can have a portable ceramic heater blowing all winter. I plug it in and only the worst Icepoxyclips and Snowmagedons have me scraping. So last night all the freezing rain just ran down the sides leaving the windows clear and the inside toasty warm.

All that water has to freeze somewhere so the icicles look great.

This is the Chevy Sonic. As you can tell there was not heater inside.

These ice storms are legendary. I am near the end of Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne. In it he recalls first person accounts of the Texas Rangers and settlers of the southern plains and the deadly ice storms that paralyze the southern plains.
This wasn’t even nearly as bad as some I’ve seen in the past. We had 3 inches of ice just a few years ago. We couldn’t get into the kids cars for 2 days. We are told there is a slight chance of snow later tonight. I’m not holding my breath for it. What you also learn on the southern plains is weathermen are on TV to sell advertising, not tell you the truth about the weather.
Stay warm, thanks for reading, bring your ice scraper, and Happy Rovering.
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Guthrie and Beyond October 2013 (Post #406) 10/30/2013

I loved the lines.
High on a hill east of Guthrie.

Mrs. Okierover and I love a good road trip. So when our oldest daughter (Fireball) told us our oldest grandchild (Pistol, aka Tater) was cheering in Guthrie, Oklahoma, we had to go. Guthrie holds a special place in our family’s history. Fireball was proposed to in this city by our now son-in-law J-man.

From our home in Norman, Guthrie is a solid one hour drive on the interstate. The first grade football game began at 0830. This meant both Fireball and her brood would need to roll out of their racks around 0630 in order to be more or less on time for the game. It’s no small task to haul a 6, 4, and 9 month old anywhere let alone at 0630. I’ve done it, alone, with only 6$(US) in my pocket, so I know. (A story for another time.)

I am not fond of “rolling out” at 0730 on my only “sleep in” day of the week. Add driving an hour on the interstate on a OU home football game weekend. Not fun. So I ponied up the money for us to stay in Guthrie over night. The grand kids had never stayed in a hotel so we knew they would have fun. Continue reading “Guthrie and Beyond October 2013 (Post #406) 10/30/2013”

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Why? That’s easy, just look west! (Post #396) 9/30/2013

People often ask me why I live in Oklahoma. I usually respond with a smart-ass comment like, “I wasn’t really consulted as a child.” I was adopted as an infant and it just so happened that both my families, adopted and biological, came to Oklahoma…on purpose a hundred and twenty five years ago, more or less. Five of my first seven years I lived on the island of Guam, my family could have gone anywhere from there they came back to Oklahoma. When I grew up, I could have left. I left to be a United States Marine, but decided to stay in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma is famous for many things. 

  • The orator Will Rogers, 
  • The aviator pioneer Wiley Post (coincidentally Will and Wiley died in the same plane crash, so we named the airports in Oklahoma City after them), 
  • Indians or as political correctness demands Native Americans,
  • Country and Western (yes both kinds) Musicians (too many to name),
  • The Dust Bowl,
  • Land Runs,
  • The Oil Industry,
  • Domestic Terrorism,
  • Tornadoes,
  • Miss Americas,
  • and our state song is the only one almost all Americans recognize as a state song and can even sing a line or two from. Take that New Hampshire, keep trying.

I could go on by naming a lot of famous stuff non-Okies wouldn’t know anything about. (See also, OU Football, Mistletoe, Scissor-tail Flycatchers, bison, parking meters, shopping carts, etc…).

But this post is about….sunsets. No really, sunsets. The great plains have the most beautiful sunsets in our country. Bet you didn’t know that. Montana is famous for their “big sky”, eh, I’ve seen it. California and Florida have ocean sunsets and I’ve even seen a few of them. But they don’t rival the plains.

So, this gets back to the facts, as I was driving home last week and we had one of our more or less average sunsets, I captured it. When I see the sunset I stop and count my blessings. I have been blessed with a great wife (think about all those pretty Okie girls who didn’t run for Miss Oklahoma….), three great kids, three grand kids, and I live in a great land where I’m free, and the sun gives me a free show more nights than not. So as you can imagine I say thank you, a lot. I have all this in Oklahoma.

I lost a dear friend this week. Whit Edwards was a great historian, actor, husband, father, and a great friend. So tonight when you are wishing you had an Oklahoma sunset to watch, thank God for your blessings and try to treat others so they will remember you long after you are gone.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Rovering.

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Zip Ties? Really? (Post #387) 9/6/2013

Look closely. Bumpers should not be held in place with zip ties. Seriously? That’s just lazy and dangerous! I guess he thinks the ticket for not having his vehicle license plate displayed is worse than the one he will get when that bumper comes off on the highway and causes an accident.
Don’t get me wrong, zip ties have their proper uses. 
Like for instance:
  • Holding the back of your ignition switch to the locking mechanism.
  • Holding a wire in place so it doesn’t melt and short out against your exhaust.
  • Holding your make-shift awning in place on your roof rack.
  • For use on rowdy hippies as you remove them from protesting their latest outrage.

This is just another fine example of why we (the State of Oklahoma) need vehicle inspections to be reinstated. 
Thanks for reading and Happy Zip Tying Rovering.
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