On Solid Rock

It isn’t usual to have rain on the Fourth of July in Southwest Oklahoma but the past two have been soggy.  This year we received an abundance of rain as a result of hurricane Alex in the Gulf of Mexico.  Erin brought a friend, Christin, home with her over the Fourth.  Erin loves fireworks and hiking in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge.  This time she wanted to trek to the “Forty Foot Hole” to see how much water was rushing through the area via West Cache Creek.  Normally, there would be very little rain, but since we’ve had so much in the past few days, we were all eager to visit the rapids.

I left before home before Sherry, Erin, and Christin this morning because I wanted to be prepared for taking pictures as they came down the trail.  It began raining heavily on the trip from Lawton to the Refuge and rained throughout my hike to the “Forty Foot Hole”.  I was dressed for it with my Redwing boots, Tilley hat, and poncho.  My camera gear was protected in a Lowepro 300 AW camera bag.  By the time I reached the area the rain had stopped so I unpacked my Sony A700 and 70-200 mm f/2.8, and waited for ladies to arrive.  I know the above picture is a little soft on the focus, but I wanted to use it anyway.  In order to get the rushing water to look this way, it was necessary to shoot at 1/4 sec., f22, and ISO 200.  I’m hand holding the camera and zoomed all the way to 200mm.  Taking this into consideration, I’m pretty satisfied with the result.  Being able to do this, at all, is a tribute to Sony’s anti-shake (image stabilization) being built into the body of their cameras.  It really makes hand holding workable in a pinch at some ridiculously slow shutter speeds.

Icy Sycamore Fruit Balls

The severe winter storm meteorologists had been forecasting for five days finally arrived in Southwest Oklahoma in full force Thursday morning.  People leaving home for work Thursday morning were greeted by wind, rain, and dropping temperatures.  Ice began forming on everything off the ground by 10:00 AM.  People going to lunch at noon found a thickening layer of ice on their windshields and north side of their autos.  The office where I work began the day on reduced services to prevent staff from facing the perils that only increased throughout the day.  By 2:00 PM, our office was closed.   However, I stayed because I was able to get so much done due to the lack of distractions.  I could here the ice pelting the roof and the wind rumbling across it.  Finally, about 4:00 PM, I decided to give it up and go home.  By then I had a good 5/16″ layer of ice on my windshield and north facing windows.  There was even a thicker layer on the north side.  I was unable to open the passenger door because it was frozen shut. I had already started the engine of my 1993 Toyota XCab DLX 4×2 pickup truck and had the defroster blowing high and hot.  Thirty-five years ago I had been given a piece of aircraft windshield plastic measuring 3″x5″x1/2″ and it has proven to be the best tool ever for chipping and chiseling ice.  I retrieved it from the glove box that’s been its home for the past 17 years, along with a can of de-icer.  I learned sometime ago that de-icer doesn’t work well on thick in freezing temperatures.  I planned on spraying it on the glass surfaces after the ice had been removed.  Well, once again that old piece of aircraft plastic was up to the task and in no time the ice had succumbed to its pressure and was fragmented in small pieces littering the parking lot surface.

Standing in the freezing rain and gusting wind, I could hear sirens wailing in all directions.  I only live two miles from where I work in Lawton, Oklahoma, so I was never really worried about getting home safely.  I was hoping most people would be off the streets at that time so I wouldn’t have to drive too defensively.  The five 50lb. sacks of sand distributed in the bed of my truck would make traction better, but actually the streets were still mostly liquid from the bountiful rain we received before it began to freeze.  For several days prior to this cold front, we had enjoyed unseasonably warm temperatures so the ground was still warm enough to melt everything, at this point.  What I wasn’t prepared for was the damage to the trees that was already taking place.

I was correct that traffic would be light and I was sure thankful, too.  Broken tree limbs were littering the streets in several place requiring me to swerve into other lanes to get past.  I would do the same whenever I could avoid passing under large limbs sagging under their icy burden.  We’ve lived in Lawton for 12 years, and I’ve never seen this before.  Having grown up in Southwest Oklahoma, I’m become used to winter ice storms; it seems we have more of them than we do snow storms.  The drive home was without mishap, but not without an element of suspense.  In just that two miles, I saw two ambulances, two fire trucks, and three LPD units, sirens blaring and lights flashing, rushing to, what appeared to be unrelated, assistance to someone in distress.  I couldn’t help but offer up a prayers for safety and comfort.