Happy 4th of July, Everyone

I awoke this morning with the strange feeling I needed to start drinking beer and eating hotdogs. Then I realized what day it is.


The kids are all out of town, working, or somewhere else. Doesn’t matter with Marilyn. She has enough food for an army, in case one shows up. She’s grilling burgers on the back porch on a $5 dollar Hibachi grill she bought at Wal-Mart. Bet everything will still taste wonderful.

Still smarting about her favorite cook’s recent social problems, she prepared Paula Deen’s famous potato salad. There’s also watermelon and strawberries for desert. No Vidalia onions at the store for some reason. Oh well!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY, everyone! Hope you are having as much fun as us.

Eric'sWeb

Christmas Doves

There was some snow, though more ice here in Edmond, America on Christmas day. Marilyn, as usual, fed everyone, including the birds. Here is a pic of a pair of Christmas doves that helped us celebrate the holidays.
Eric'sWeb

Pack of Wild Dogs Spotted in Edmond, Oklahoma

Oscar, Princess, and Scooter

Eric'sWeb

Edmond Crow Pics

Crows are intriguing birds and thousands live in Edmond, Oklahoma. I see them everyday and often take their pictures. Getting a great pic is tough because the birds are so cautious, they never let you get too close. Their color also makes proper exposure almost impossible. Still, here are two crow pics.



Crow in flight




Crow in tree

Eric'sWeb



More Spring Pics

Pics from earlier this year.

Eric'sWeb

Edmond Sky and Edmond Pug

Here is a slightly Photoshopped pic of an Edmond spring sky, and a humorous pic of my pup Princess sipping from a hummingbird feeder. Yes, I guess she has a serious sweet tooth.

Eric'sWeb

Albino Coyote

Oklahoma weather is quite bizarre. This year, it is nothing less than weird. Killer tornadoes struck earlier this week destroying more than a hundred homes. Two nights ago, thunder almost rolled me out of bed. Last night, the storms returned, bringing with them unseasonably chilly temperatures and lots of rain. They also brought out a new beast to my front yard.

My beautiful Shepherd dog Velvet is sick. I think she is just getting old. She has arthritis, allergies and is picky, picky, picky. She was lying amid her cedar chips tonight when I heard Patch, my Australian cow dog, begin barking. I went to the front door, expecting to see the young red fox that likes to eat my cat’s left-over food. What I saw when I gazed out the door wasn’t a fox.

I gazed out at an albino coyote. Yes, this is what I think it was. It wasn’t a dog. Its front legs appeared longer than its rear legs. It was almost ghost-like, a creature almost devoid of color. I watched it for a minute and then went to the kitchen for my trusty digital camera. When I pointed it at the beast, it ran away, into the shadows.

I know, no one is ever going to believe me without a picture. I put some more food in the cat’s plate, left the front door open and I am waiting for Patch to start barking again.

Eric'sWeb

Christmas Eve Snowstorm

This Christmas Eve morning began with rain. The rain quickly progressed to sleet and then big clumps of wet snow by midday. A local weatherman had predicted a three percent chance of snow today. Let’s hope he doesn’t spend much time in Vegas.

The weatherman today reports that the snow stretches all the way to Waco, Texas, and that this is the worst blizzard Oklahoma has seen in at least twenty years, and maybe a lifetime.

Here are a few 2009 Christmas Eve pictures showing the biggest Oklahoma City snowstorm in ten years. Have a Merry Christmas!

Eric'sWeb

Buzzards and Butterflies

There were at least a dozen Monarch Butterflies in my backyard today when I went for a walk with my pugs. I only had my Nikon with the relatively short zoom and was unable to get any close-ups. Hurrying into the house, I returned with my Pentax and 200mm zoom lens.

Even though I didn’t manage to take any “drop dead gorgeous” pics, I had a great time clicking away at the fast moving little creatures. Most of the Monarchs had departed when I returned to the backyard but there were dozens of large yellow butterflies. Dressed in shorts, tee shirt and flip flops, I snapped away as mosquitoes made a meal of my legs and ankles.

After watching the first half of Alabama drubbing Arkansas, I threw in the towel and decided to take a walk through the neighborhood. Monarchs were everywhere, flitting in front of me but never quite close enough to get a shot with my Nikon. Reveling in the gorgeous creatures flying around me, I was unprepared for what I saw next.

As I topped the hill about a mile from my house, I saw a huge turkey buzzard in someone’s front yard. I stopped, extracted my camera, put it on full zoom and began clicking away. I was close enough to hit the huge buzzard with a spitball, but unfortunately not close enough to get a clear picture.

My little Nikon is great for taking still photos, mostly close-ups, but out of its element when taking action shots. As I looked at my pics upon returning to the house, I saw that all I had was a blur.

It was a gorgeous day in Central Oklahoma. I missed most of the good butterfly pics and totally flopped on the buzzard pic. Arkansas, my favorite team, was creamed but hey, it was a gorgeous day in central Oklahoma and you can’t have everything.

Gondwana

Ghost Hollow

GHOST BOYS OF EDMOND Here are two pics I took yesterday. the first pic, taken while there was still light, is the ghost creek that winds through Tall Oaks II in Edmond, OK. This is where I saw the large black cat.

The second pic is looking down the road at the hollow where the creek crosses under the road, via a culvert. This is where I saw the ghosts, just after dark.
Gondwana

Spirit Children of Tall Oaks II

I began my walk earlier tonight than usual and it was not yet dark when I reached the place where I saw last night’s spirits. I nevertheless approached the bottom where the creek goes under the road with anticipation, and with caution.

I didn’t get a good look at the two beings last night but I think they were boys, about ten or eleven. The more I have thought about what I saw, the more my mind is playing tricks on my memory. I am now convinced that what I saw were two Edmond, Oklahoma ghost boys that use the creek as a conduit to move from place to place without detection.

I had my trusty digital Nikon in my pocket this evening and took a picture of the tree-covered low spot where the creek goes under the road. Even though darkness had yet to totally fall, the picture turned out completely black, except for a few spots of circular light.

What light remained, as I rounded the corner and began walking up the hill to my house, was disappearing fast. There was something sitting in the road in front of me - a large black cat that I had never before seen. The cat ambled into a culvert under the street.

Tomorrow, I will begin my walk a little earlier so I can capture a picture of the place where I saw the two ghosts, or later so that I might catch another glimpse of the spirit boys. Even if I don’t see them, maybe I’ll get a picture of the black cat that lives in the culvert.

Fiction South

Ghosts of Tall Oaks Creek

August in central Oklahoma began as a scorcher, with multiple days of one hundred plus temperatures. It ended with a whimper, days damp and cool, and the nights almost chilly.

Days have grown shorter, darkness falling before I finished my walk tonight. A creek courses through the area, cloaked on both sides by trees and thick vegetation. All manner of wildlife, including foxes, coyotes, raccoons, possums, and even an occasional deer, call the creek home and use it as a conduit for stealthy movement. Tonight, I saw something other than a wild animal.

About a half mile from my house, thick tree cover effectively blocks the moon and stars. As I walked down the gentle hill to the spot where the creek crosses the road, I saw the faint outline of two people walking toward me. I couldn’t tell if they were male or female, young or old. As I strained to see whom it was, one of them darted into the trees.

I was walking at a fast clip down the hill, straining to get a better look at the person walking toward me. As I approached the creek, I realized that the person dressed in ephemeral white was actually moving away from me. The person had a light. At first, I thought it was a flashlight, but they held it over their head like a torch - a torch so faint that it cast only the dimmest of light. By now, I was wondering if the two people I saw were actually real, or perhaps spirits out for a walk.

The entity disappeared for a moment behind a slight bend in the road. I increased my pace, expecting to see two walkers, dressed in white, strolling ahead of me when I rounded the slight bend. Instead, I saw nothing but darkness. There was no place the two beings could easily have gone that I wouldn’t have seen them. I continued toward the house, looking back over my shoulder for the entities, but seeing only flickering fireflies.

The golden moon, nearly full, glowed as I exited the trees. A little voice inside my head told me that I either didn’t see what I thought I saw, or else there is a logical explanation to the mystery. I guess anything is possible.

Louisiana Mystery Writer

Winter Pics

Here are three pics taken last winter: Lake Hefner honkers, the Oklahoma sky and my new pup Scooter.

Summer Heat and Cool Guitars

It’s summer in Oklahoma, the weather hot and humidity out of sight. As I drink a beer and dink on my laptop, I’m reminded of the many similar summers I experienced while growing up in northwest Louisiana.

We had no air conditioning then, only a ceiling fan and a lot of open windows. As I pay attention to my new Eagle’s CD I’m also reminded that the music we listened to back then was either on scratchy LP’s or radios with tinny speakers.

I like the new Eagle’s album. It has some good songs on the two CD’s, although most a little too country for my tastes. My personal favorite is Last Good Time in Town sung, and I guess written, by Joe Walsh.

Age-wise I’m contemporaries with the Eagles and I’m happy to hear that in their sixties the boys haven’t lost their creative spark. I grew up about thirty miles from the equally tiny town where Don Henley lived but hey, thirty miles across the Texas border may as well have been a thousand miles away.

Walsh’s song features one of his patented guitar riffs, his style as catchy as any musician that ever played the instrument. The lyrics are meaningful but don’t weigh your soul down with some maudlin message. The beat and back-up instrumentation keep enticing you to get out of your seat and start dancing. Yes I did!

A new steamy summer and a fresh Eagles album make me happy and I’m glad the boys, in their sixties, haven’t lost their creative spark. Maybe there’s hope for me yet!

Fiction South

Edmond Author's Book Fair

I will be attending the Edmond Author’s Book Fair this Saturday, the 24th of January, at the Edmond Historical Society & Museum. The museum is located at 431 S. Boulevard in Edmond, Oklahoma.

The event begins around 1 pm. If you are in the area, please drop by and introduce yourself as I would love to meet you.

Eric Wilder

Eric's Website