Tag: weather

Wow. Talk about spread thin.

No posts here in close to 3 months! I should be ashamed, but I’m not.

In the world of Facebook, Twitter, our Ning forum, heck I’ve even played with Google Wave – not to mention my ‘real job,’ which includes fending off the anonymous nasty comment posters at KTVZ.COM – who needs to blog any more?

But I shouldn’t go so long without sharing. So let’s see how the pic I posted at Facebook looks – of the mean ol’ storm laughing at us as it approached (spotting things in the clouds is as old as man – but from space is funner!;-)

Face in clouds
Is it a friendly face or scary? You decide!

Just got done shoveling a couple inches of crusty snow. Have lost roughly 10-15 lbs. since a troubling July health screening. Have had, um, financial difficulties at home, but lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving – I and my wife both employed, in decent health, still holding onto our home, unlike so many folks who don’t deserve the crud thrown their way about ‘buying a house they couldn’t afford.’ Whose to blame for the mass delusion?

Oh, and I got a new PC last month! I wrote previously about blowing a hole in my 4-year-old HP PC’s wireless keyboard. Years earlier, the on-button broke, and had been jerry-rigged and hotglue-duct taped back in place. One day, it got stuck. Again. Argh! And my kind sis-in-law Dianne helped make an upgrade to a new, 64-bit HP PC happen. I don’t miss the wireless keyboard and all those batteries. It’s spiffy – and upgrade to Windows 7 went well, but now, alas, IE 8 locks up on occasion again, and after settling back in, boot-up still takes forever. Oh well;-)

Anyway, hope this finds you all well and ready for more snow and holiday stress. Oh yeah, I’m signed up for stress management newsletters from that great site, About.com. Breathing is key, as is not blowing up among co-workers. I’m still working on it as my mentor Chuck Heil back in the Media Production Center at John Adams HS had on a lapel button, PBPGINFWMY (Please Be Patient, God Is Not Finished With Me Yet.)

😉

Sparkling snow and Christmas cheer

A musing on Christmas Day of how things really aren’t all that bad – and a prayer it’ll stay that way.

I really don’t mind shoveling – it’s some of the best exercise I get! And I’m getting a lot of it lately – we have to be at, oh, 1-2 feet of snow in past 2-3 weeks, which you just knew was gonna happen after a too-warm Christmas parade.

Despite the challenges at work and my wife’s challenges in finding work, I and Deb have lots to be thankful for this year. For her, the move from W. Virginia to Bend by her older sister Diane was the biggest present of all. And I’ve got to admit, she can make chocolate goodies almost as good as Deb’s. (Hmm, navigating a safe way to put things;-)

Anyway, I think anyone who has a good job after the travails of the last half of 2008 has to be mighty thankful – and I am. I’m also thankful for my online friends, and those who come to KTVZ.COM without intentions of stirring up trouble but engaging in civil, often lively conversation. I try not to dwell too much on those who only make accusations and stir up trouble. I resolve in ’09 to spend even less time trying to defend myself/our station to those who clearly are just picking fights. If their comments are out of line, they are gone. If not, I’ll try harder to bite my tongue and let everyone else have their say, as a good moderator does. (I’ll never ignore a question that isn’t a putdown in disguise, though;-)

Oh, the title. Yes, when I was shoveling the driveway, in today’s blue-sky sunshine, the snow was just so … sparkling. Desperate me, I took it as a sign that just maybe, things will get better in 2009, and that the doomsayers will be as wrong as they were when they kept predicting doom earlier and it didn’t happen. We have mighty challenges, but – you can call be naive – if we just put our minds to it, I think we can head off Depression 2.0. I pray so.

Meanwhile, I might not be able to convince the powers that be that we should give over 2-3 minutes of airtime to just showing the gorgeous beauty of a snow-flocked High Desert when the clouds part on a blue-sky day, but … don’t let it pass you by. While you’re shoveling, rushing about or driving with fingers clenched on the steering wheel, watching for the yahoos going too fast who could slam into you … be sure to look up and around some times. The world is gorgeous when it’s snow-covered like this – don’t miss out!

And Merry Christmas to all of you. Here’s to a great ’09!

Godspeed, Big Easy

I moved to New Orleans when I was 9, lived there for close to a year – the year of Hurricane Betsy, in 1965.

Wild times. We spent a wind-howling night in a second-floor apartment, then returned to our mobile home, which had floated during the storm, apparently, and came down almost on its blocks. My stepmother was scared to open the door – bone dry, only the air conditioner underneath was ruined.

I remember no power, Sterno for cooking, vienna sausages to eat. Ugh. (That was also the year my stepmother had to go to a notary public to swear out an affidavit that I and my two older brothers – having just moved from Philadelphia – were white. Segregation time and all that.

Anyway, I only lived there for one Mardi Gras, remember looking through the windows at the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on Bourbon Street, and… well, I sure hope things go well in the next 12 to 24 hours.

You might remember I’ve been pining for WorldNow to add forum/photo album features to our Website. Well, Hurricane Gustav has prompted creation of a nationwide message board, available to all their stations, and while it isn’t the busiest place in the world, I’ve weighed in, and I do like the look, and hope we can create my dreamed-of High Desert Forum some time, using that software.

Like babysitting the article comments isn’t fun enough, at times;-) But it WAS the top-viewed item at KTVZ.COM in August, topping any individual news story. Some people are offended by what some posters say, but … it is a thriving community and I’m fascinated by it. Many nice folks there, too. Please join in!