Monday, December 9, 2013

When Life Gives You Ice...

Pssst: You may need to install Adobe Flash Player or use a modern browser if the Photospheres do not appear correctly. I recommend Google Chrome, but you can also use Mozilla Firefox or Opera.



Just slide with it. Anyway...

It's been ages since I've posted anything on here. Luckily, a couple of snow storms came along and put a damper on the crazy amount of things that we've been needing to do. Academia has been the main demand, with tests, projects, and other miscellania demanding our attention. My studies have been especially rigorous, with some classes rapidly advancing into and building on difficult concepts. Hopefully, the hard work will pay off come spring, where I have the opportunity to test off up to four semester college-level classes.

Enough about that. Extracurriculars have also been busy, with sis getting into North Central Honors Orchestra for the second year in a row. Her concert occurred on November 24th, to great success. You can listen to a clip of the performance below.
I also received the honor of being selected for Oklahoma Music Educator's Association All-State Mixed Choir for the 2013-2014 School Year. The festival will be held in Tulsa this January.

We also visited Martin Park Nature Center, a public park operated by the City of Oklahoma City. Somewhat akin to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, its domain remains wild even though it's surrounded by suburbia. They do have a visitors center, where you can learn about the different types of plants and animals native to the area. We spent most of our time out on the trails: There are three of them, each of them providing different views and landscapes. Below, you can see a photosphere of one of the more impressive crossings that we encountered during our visit.
If you want to see more, visit the Google+ Album.

Another point of interest we visited was a corn maze located just north of Chickasaw. Each year, they choose a different theme that they design the complex around (you can see the previous year on satellite imagery here). This year, the theme was Haunt the Zoo. The map looks like a drawing of common zoo animals, but also served as the only guide to the winding pathways within.

Also at the farm: hayrides, rabbits for sale, water pump stations (compete to get the most water flowing (or see who can actually prime the pump in the first place)), horseshoes, henna tattooing station, and a tetherball pole

Circling back around to the present, it's been wild the past few days. We experienced the heaviest wintry mix since our arrival in Oklahoma. Local reports say we got about 3-4" of snow, along with some sleet and frozen rain on Thursday afternoon through Friday early morning. Road conditions as of publication are still too hazardous for the school busses to maneuver. The photosphere at the top of this post shows conditions around dusk Friday Evening. Its been fun learning how to drive safely and maneuver effectively on icy roads. Apparently, not everyone here has got that skill, since there was over 30 accidents reported by Oklahoma Highway Patrol through Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, things will continue to improve, especially when we pop back up over freezing tomorrow afternoon.

For the latter part of winter break, we'll be headed back to Branson, MO for a more extended stay than we did previously. It shouldn't take me another two months to post again.

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