Indulging my obsession

I have an obsession with radio towers. These photos are rather amateurish, but I'm not really concerned my photos being fine art. All but one of these towers are photos of a tower that were several miles north of my old campgrounds in Anadarko. While walking up (or down) the hill to the boys' dorms, I could always spot it off in the distance. I enjoyed camp to some degree, but I was also usually pretty homesick. I've always wondered where this particular tower was. During the day it was just a faint line in the distance. At night, it was a flashing light in the distance.

I've decided to collect pictures of them, as some of them I believe are being razed. I know of 2 in particular that have been razed in the last decade or so. The earliest one I can remember is one that was just north of Wilshire north of Yukon. It is no longer standing. There was also one on the west side of Highway 81 in Grady County in between Minco and Pocassett that is no longer standing. I'm very sorry I missed them, but it's motivated me to take pics of them. Another problem is that while the towers remain, some of the booster drums are being taken off the towers. The booster drums added a great deal to the towers because it gave them an odd shape.

I know of one in eastern Colorado along Highway 287 that looked like a giant wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

On Monday (Memorial Day) I took a drive out to Caddo County to find this tower. On the way down, I saw off in the distance another tower. Unfortunately, the drums had been taken off this tower. I saw another tower in New Mexico on my way out to Las Vegas a couple of summers ago that had its drums taken off. On my way back from Anadarko/Gracemont, I drove east of Hinton along Highway 37 to find this tower. That first picture you see is that particular tower east of Hinton near Methodist Road in western Canadian County. I wasn't able to get close to this tower, thus the reason for the tower being so far in the distance. This was on my way back, but I had to turn around and head back to Hinton as it seemed like I was getting further and further away from where I needed to be. I thought 37 would take me at least to Union City, but the road kept winding southeast instead of due east.

I had some amount of trouble finding my Anadarko/Gracemont Tower (I know its FCC registration number, but I'm just going to leave it out of my blog and just refer to it by the towns it is near). As I drove in on Hwy 281, I saw it off in the distance and pulled over to the side of the road to see if I could get a good "deep distance" shot. The far left photo on the second row is that shot. I continued south, looking for a secondary road to pull off and head west. I had trouble finding a good secondary road that would intersect where the tower was because trees and brushes would block my vision to the tower. I finally found it on a road that was "Closed in 3 miles." I pulled off and took pictures of this tower.

I hope to take more pics of radio towers in the future. I am hoping to take a picture of the Holy Grail of radio towers, the elusive station that lies northeast of Pueblo, Colorado some distance east of Interstate 25. I call this tower the "Begging Dog" tower, and I hope that one day I figure out if the Begging Dog tower is the same tower as the "Boxing Elvis" tower I saw near Pueblo with my family several years ago.

You gotta love Band of Horses

Who'd have thought that a very pretty song would be named after this guy?

Wrong frame of mind

Friday was one of the worst days I've ever had on this job. 2 of the "worst days ever" have come within the last 5 or 6 months, which may not be a ringing endorsement for my occupational sanity. I seem to be working harder these days, but I feel more overwhelmed also. Part of that overwhelming feeling is the feeling of being bullied by my boss. If you met this person, you'd never guess anyone would describe them as "bullying." It's easy to fool people when you're passive-aggressive. In the last 5 years, in the midst of the "figuring out who you are and what you want and need" stage of my life, I've discovered a character trait that I find reprehensible is passive-aggressiveness. I hate it. I spew it out of my mouth, as the case may be.

So Friday afternoon, after being befuddled and flustered beyond reason and control by my boss's bizarre passive-aggressive management techniques, I went to the library to check out some music. On these kinds of days, when I feel intensely trapped by a situation or problem, there isn't much that can console me. It'd probably be easier to outrun a cheetah with the munchies while wearing swimming flippers than to get me to smile on days like this. Needless to say, I was in the wrong frame of mind.

I'd been wanting to hear Writer's Block from Peter Bjorn & John for a while, and was suprised to find it at the library. I didn't hesitate to check it out. As I popped it into my CD player, I was underwhelmed. "Eh, more typical Swedish indie,"I thought to myself. But over the next 12 hours or so, the music began to get into my blood. It was good medicine.

I gauge a music's quality subjectively in as to see how the music would play on the open road in the middle of nowhere surrounded by radio towers, signs for towns I'd never heard of before, and desolation. This one measures up just fine. The first couple of tracks I could take or leave, and the latter tracks cause the album to flame out. But from tracks 3 to about 10, you couldn't ask for much more.

What's up?

I'm not getting this new blog off to a good start. I haven't had a whole lot to write about. This coming weekend is Megan's birthday. So I'll be spending much of the day with her tomorrow and tomorrow evening. She's had a tough week so I'm hoping she has a very good birthday "weekend." She's getting a massage and getting her hair done so I hope she has a great day getting pampered. Plus, I have another small surprise for her that I hope she enjoys (get your mind out of the gutter).

-As for me, the last month and a half has been stressful. Perhaps, "full" is the better term. I already wrote about my tests. Now I am on the tentative list to get on the Teacher Assessment Panel. The reason I'm on the tentative list is because I don't have my fingerprints done yet. I got through my job evaluation. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as I anticipated, but my job situation hasn't changed. It's still frustrating, unfulfilling, and stressful.

-I've been coaching soccer at the church's Upward program the last month. The actual coaching and officiating is a ton of fun. What I don't enjoy is all the other things that go along with it, like having to make sure all the kids have equal playing time, making sure the parents bring their snacks and drinks for the kids, and things like that. It's not all bad. I actually enjoy making up the lineup each week. There are 2 halves, and 3 substitation periods in a half. I have 11 kids on my team so because there is an unequal amount of players, there is an unequal amount of playing time. It works out ok. The one thing I was concerned with going into this is angry/upset parents. This is an Upward program, which means that we don't keep score (although, honestly, I keep score to myself). I never let the kids know what the score is. I do worry about the parents knowing their kid's team is losing, and being unhappy about it. I worry about being the coach who "doesn't know what he's doing." But I love coaching. I have a blast during the games as if I was playing myself. It gets a little chaotic during substitution times. I wish we were playing more games though, and I also wish we had a midweek practice time. I've talked a little with Megan about possibly coaching little league soccer for some club team in Edmond or Yukon or thereabouts this fall or next spring. The only thing I ask myself is if I'm ready for angry parents and the scrutiny that comes along with it. Maybe I can get some more head coaching experience before I do that. Or I could simply be an assistant for a team, which would be good.

-My Morning Jacket is going to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live tomorrow. I probably won't be around to see it tomorrow night. Besides, I'm not sure I can sit through all the lame political humor in order to hear them.