www.tulok.net : Earlier Entries
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Entry 54 May 3, 2003 12:00 am |
The new computer showed up on my doorstep Thursday night. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of it until I was preparing to leave for my weekly roadtrip Friday morning. I've taken it out of the box but as of yet haven't hooked it up to see if it's any better (no note inside to tell me what they did). They may also want to chastise a certain UPS driver: as I said, I was not aware the package had arrived until the next morning, despite the fact the label on the top of the box clearly states "Signature Required".
Yesterday was, without a doubt, the longest single-day solo roadtrip that I have EVER taken: 854 miles from driveway to driveway! And it was well worth it. I now have the endpoint of every state highway that crosses into Arkansas (yesterday was everything south of Poteau), plus I also got every endpoint south and east of Antlers. Just kept going until the sun wouldn't let me go any further (as the western terminus pic of OK-109 will attest).
Once the sun went down, the second part of my mission began: I swung into Denison, TX to update my lottery picks. Unfortunately, the Texas Lotto is changing its format in a little over a week (adding a Powerball-type number to the mix), so I could only update up to that point. Gonna have to go back down there in two weeks and update it all over again.
No, wait. In two weeks I have to go back to Missouri and update those. Oh, sheesh! Decisions, desicions.
Here's how yesterday's timetable went: left the house around 8:45am; got to my first endpoint just south of Poteau a little after 11 (that's right, over two hours just to get to the first pic, that's how much I've done); in a rare case of perfect timing, the sun finally broke free from the clouds less than ten minutes before I got on scenic Talimena Drive, a little after noon; left Arkansas for the last time (OK-87, within the Red River floodplain) around 5:30pm; last pic of the day, OK-109 in Boswell, at 8:20pm; reached Denison, TX, and got my lottery tickets @ 9:30pm; then headed back home, reaching my driveway at 12:30 in the morning. Whew!
I may actually skip next week's roadtrip and concentrate instead on putting up the pages for the ones I've already done. After all, there are 39 state highways from the past three weeks whose web pages I have to either update or create, and I haven't started on any of them yet. Was going to do a few today, but since the computer's returned I need to figure out if it's working properly.
I am gonna do one thing to the road site today: add a "Picture of the Week" feature: bunch of the other road websites are doing it, including my in-state counterpart over at OKRoads. Decided to start it this week because I have a picture that directly relates to the May 3, 1999 tornado, and since today is the anniversary of that it seemed like the perfect time.
In a sidebar, I'm kinda wondering how much the people who make the state government's official road map actually talk to anyone who travel these roads. Just in the past eight days I've found three state highways that appear on the brand-new 2003-2004 map that apparently no longer exist (all actual signage has been removed from the roads), as well as one other those actual terminus point is some fifteen miles away from where the map says it is. I guess the liaison between the Transportation Department and the Cartography Department got laid off. 8:30am
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Entry 55 May 8, 2003 12:00 am |
New computer has been up & running fine since Saturday. Interestingly, it arrived not only without an OS (which I was kinda expecting, as that's how it was sent to me the first time), but the hard drive had not even been partitioned. Also, no note as to what, if anything, was done to the unit.
Guess I shouldn't complain much, though. It is working. Even got Windows XP installed back on it.
Took a closer look at the new format for the Texas Lottery, and I've decided not to play it anymore. Not only are they making it harder to win by adding their version of a Powerball, it's now harder to win than Powerball. And I mean win anything!
In the Powerball lottery, all you have to do is match the Powerball number and you've won three bucks. In the new Texas version, just to win the three-dollar prize you have to match not only their Blue Bonus Ball (which if I remember correctly is what they're calling their powerball), but one regular number as well. Definitely not worth it. All lottery trips from here on in will be to the Joplin area.
After a week of tornadoes and severe storms occuring all around the area, I have finally decided I'm sick and tired of hearing the term "dry line". I appreciate the Powers That Be sparing the immediate Tulsa area from the worst of these systems, but c'mon. At least let us have the rain! Lots of areas around us have had as much as half a foot of rain so far this month. The airport has had a stinking trace!
(Which brings up another unanswered question: why are Tulsa's official weather statistics recorded at the airport. Why should anybody care? I mean, who lives at the airport?
The geographical center of the city needs to be pinned down, and all of Tulsa's official records need to be measured from that point.)
Speaking of the Powers That Be (what God is referred to on the series Angel, which had it's best season finale yet last night, leaving us fans crossing our fingers that it gets renewed next season), what have they got against the town of Moore? Second tornado in almost exactly four years, some houses that had been rebuilt after the first one getting hit again. At least this time there appear to have been no deaths.
And the roadgeek world was not spared from this evening's tornado. Eric Stuve, my state counterpart over at OKRoads.com, was directly affected. His home is OK and so is he, but the official OKRoadmobile now has a shattered window on the driver's side, and his rear window is completely gone.
As is his place of business. The Wendy's in Moore is no...more (sorry, just realized that was a pun, and not a good one at that). Hope all of Eric's friends are alright, and here's to the people of Moore, and here's hoping you never have to go through this hell again.
Been flipping back-and-forth all night between the three main TV stations in town, watching their weather coverage. Channel 6 was far-and-away the best, primarily owing to the fact that they have a true sister-station (owned by the same people) in OKC, so they were able to show the OKC-9 coverage live, while the other stations were stuck with radar and cellular calls.
In fact, the only two complaints I had about KOTV's coverage: the guy with the handheld camera in the Weathercenter acting like he's trying to do an "Up Close and Personal" documentary. Enough with that guy already!
Two, and this is admittedly nitpicking: all night long they were referring to Channel 9's newschopper as "Sky 6". Please, it's Sky 9 if it's anything.
They even prepared for the coverage ahead of time, announcing during the 5:00 newscast that any of their prime-time programs, if they get pre-empted due to weather coverage (which the first two programs did), would be aired during the overnight hours, so people could set their VCR's. Very classy. Please take a large note here that Channel 2 neglected to do likewise to their highest-rated program, Friends, which aired their penultimate show of the season tonight, which I will now not be able to see until the show is rerun in early September. (Fortunately the worst of the weather left the area just in time for Will & Grace to still be seen.)
As far as the weather coverage on the other two stations: Channel 8 has the better radar, but I usually only pay attention to them when my house might be directly affected, because it means that they are as well, since I live at the bottom of the hill from the KTUL studios.
The less said about Channel 2's coverage, the better. Most of the time the so-called Chief Meteorologist seemed to care more about how good a job his co-workers and the spotters in the field were doing than about the fact that people watching could be in danger. Management made a serious, serious mistake when they released the previous chief meteorologist and hired this guy.
In fact, the only thing KJRH has going for it is two female meteorologists, very much a rarity for any local TV station anywhere in the country. Nicole Mitchell is the hottest woman on any of the local news broadcasts, and Julie Chin is so perky she makes Katie Couric look glum. I'll watch if they're on, no hesitation. Mike Anderson is pretty good, too. But not El Chiefo. The sooner they get rid of him the better. 10:09pm
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Entry 56 May 10, 2003 12:00 am |
Another round of tornadoes last night. As opposed to the one Thursday, which struck the south and east sides of the Oklahoma City area, this one struck the north and west sides. Hope it wasn't because those people were feeling left out: this is not the kind of event you would want to wish on other people. We've got one more night of severe weather possible tonight, and right now I don't feel too lucky for the people living in central OKC.
Tornado sirens went off in the Tulsa area around 1am, but all Tulsa got was some much-needed rain. Almost willing to bet, however, that the airport only got another damn trace. Last I heard the closest damage around here was just south of Glenpool. Once the storm left Tulsa County, it pretty much fizzled out.
Putnam City West High School was, for all intents and purposes, totalled last night. With less than a month remaining before the end of the school year don't be surprised if the same thing happens to these students that happened to those going to Owasso High School in 1993 after the Easter tornado: school was let out early for the year & the students finished with the grades they had up to this point.
Weather Channel just ran some stats: the national average is 248 tornadoes for the entire month of May. After nine days this month we've already had 299! More than doubled the previous May 1-9 record.
Got an email from Eric over at OKRoads. Turns out his Wendy's was about the only food place in the area that wasn't totally destroyed. Just blew out the windows. They expect to be back up and running possibly as early as Tuesday. (Eric, lemme know when it does reopen & where it is, I may just swing by there on my next roadtrip in that direction.) Once it does reopen, they'll have a lot more business for a while: the Mickeydees, Braum's and Western Sizzlin' in the immediate area were levelled.
Currently watching an OKC reporter talking to the Weather Channel, admitting that he's ready to move out of the state, doesn't know how much more of this he can take. I've heard that before from other people. Little sis moved to Southern California to get away from the tornadoes. Real smart: leaving an area that could see an occasional small swath of destruction for an area that could have an earthquake totally obliterate everything in sight!
Tornado warnings currently being sounded in the Indianapolis area. Got a feeling today's first round of Indy 500 qualifying might not happen. Today's NASCAR Bucsh race in St. Louis may be a rainout as well.
Channel 2 did a little better on the weather coverage last night. I'm sure that was only because the severe stuff was a lot closer to Tulsa last night. And you might accidentally be wondering why in my last entry I never referred to their El Chiefo by name. Simple: these pages eventually show up on Yahoo & Google web searches, and I don't want any of my pages to be connected to a search for this guy.
Jeff Lazalier! Just remembered the name of the previous chief meteorologist there, the one they so unceremoniously canned. Hope he's bounced back someplace, with station owners who really appreciate him.
Back to politics real quick. Interesting article about what President Dubya was doing the morning of September 11th, 2001. At least, as near as anyone can figure out. His detailed itinerary has still never been released.
And now that the war is over, the Republican-controlled department at work has put the TV back on CNN Headline News. Apparently one instance of Pat Sajak's talk show was too much to bear!
I don't remember (and don't feel right now like checking the old pages) if I ranted about how much Fox News Channel's slogan "Fair and Balanced" is the most un-true statement ever made in television. The channel is so blatantly pro-Republican. Everyone else at work said I was crazy, that the channel is balanced.
Oh, really! News Corp., the company that owns the Fox networks, including Fox News, is attempting to purchase the DirecTV satellite service, which, as antitrust issues are involved, requires testimony from the owner of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch, before the House Judiciary Committee. Most of the congressmen spent the time telling Murdoch what they thought of the Fox News coverage. The Repulican congressmen praised it, the Democrats blasted it. Don't sound too balanced to me.
But my vindication is coming, the whole reason I'm bringing the topic up: here's a link to a news story reporting that Fox News may soon be banned from airing in Britain. Seems the British version of the FCC requires that all news channels follow a standard of "due impartiality", something the British claim Fox News is blatantly ignoring.
So, I'm not nuts after all. Well, at least not about this. 10:26am
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Entry 57 May 18, 2003 12:00 am |
No road trip this weekend either. One, because we had another big round of storms on Friday, my only available day of the week to go on these things. Two, because if the car broke down, the people I would've called to come help me are all out of town.
And three, my dad is back in the hospital. Ten years ago his condition was so bad that the doctors had to perform a heart transplant operation on him. It left him more susceptible to other ailments (such as a nastier-than-Letterman's case of the shingles), and he was told that, as some of the arteries weren't reconnected, if he had another heart attack he'd never know it.
I took him in to the hospital Thursday morning, as he was having trouble catching his breath, especially whenever he leaned back or lied down. After a few tests they admitted him, and a little later the doctors told him that the tests concluded that he did, indeed, have another heart attck sometime during the previous week.
He's feeling better now, but staying in the hospital over the weekend until the doctors can decide if he's up for an arteriogram. Will hopefully know something tomorrow.
The broadcast networks' new fall prime-time schedules have been released, and between, cancellations, pre-scheduled endings, and new timeslots, the networks have conveniently placed all the programs that I want to see on two nights, thusly:
--Wednesdays at 7pm: That 70's Show on Fox, Enterprise on UPN, and Smallville on the WB (only two VCRs, but fortunately Dish Network provides me with a west-coast feed of the WB network, so I can catch Smallville at 10.)
--Wednesdays at 8pm: Angel on the WB (with one of the original Buffy cast members who transferred to this show leaving it to start a family, and a current Buffy cast member moving over this fall)
--Thursdays at 7pm: Friends on NBC (the last season), and a new series, Tru Calling, on FOX (I doubt it'll last long; shows in this timeslot on FOX rarely do.)
--Thursdays, 8-9, NBC: Will & Grace, followed by the previously-mentioned-on-these-pages American version of the BBC hit Coupling.
Leaving Friday nights for anything that might be showing on the Sci-Fi Channel, and Saturdays for my newest guilty pleasure, Trading Spaces on TLC. Got hooked on it ever since my first episode, the live Vegas reveal. Since then I've seen all but three episodes of the original BBC version, Changing Rooms (and those three will be airing during the next week), and a Trading Spaces Memorial Day marathon is scheduled eight days from now.
Virtually any room in this house would easily qualify for a Trading Spaces makeover, and part of me would love to do the show. Unfortunately, I don't have the stamina anymore to do a show like that, and I don't qualify to be on While You Were Out (the person doing the surprising also has to live in the house, and I don't think any of my cats know where to write to).
Unfortunately, I'm beginning to realize I'm a pretty good candidate for What Not to Wear. 7:37pm
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Entry 58 May 23, 2003 12:00 am |
Still gonna try a road trip tomorrow instead of my usual Fridays, after I was reminded that today is the start of the Memorial Day weekend, and traffic this afternoon & evening is going to be horrible. Hopefully, by tomorrow everyone will already be at their weekend destinations.
My dad is still in the hospital. The doctors are now working off the assumption that he didn't have a heart attack after, but rather a stroke. End result is the same, but if this is the case it's kinda good to know that his new heart hasn't started failing as well.
For the past few days he's been complaining of serious pain in his leg. It had been hurting a little bit before we took him to the hospital, but the new medication he's on has aggravated it. Doctors are still running scans and doing other tests; they're afraid he may have bone cancer in his leg. More as it develops.
Currently watching qualifying for this weekend's Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. I have to agree with many other Winston Cup fans who feel that last weekend's running of The Winston was a major disappointment. Many of the drivers and owners are considering not running this exhibition race any more because of the risk of injury and the expense of wrecking a car at a non-points event. The inversion vote process is ludicrous, because EVERYBODY knows going in that the fans are gonna vote to invert the maximum number of cars. But winner Jimmie Johnson's admission that he didn't even attempt to win the first two segments, knowing how the inversion would go, was basically the last straw.
I don't blame Johnson one bit, given the circumstances I probably would've done the same thing. The problem lies with the inversion process. It needs to be totally revamped. If NASCAR insists on keeping the fan vote to determine the inversion, fine. But don't vote to invert x number of cars: vote to invert by patterns. Such as:
...inverting all the cars by their even (or odd) finishing positions
...inverting all the cars by their even (or odd) car number
...by their standings in the points
...chronologically by the drivers' (or crew chief's, or front tire changer's) birth dates
...numerically by car number, starting with the car whose number comes closest to the two digits to the right of the decimal point in the number of seconds separating the first and second car when they crossed the finish line just prior to the inversion (OK, I thought a bit about that one)
...invert the first x number of cars with the last x cars, leaving the cars in-between unchanged.
...driver Kevin Harvick's suggestion: for Segment Two, invert all the cars based on their starting position in Segment One, then for Segment Three order them by their average finish in the first two segments.
The point is, if ya gotta invert, there are lots of other ways to do it than by just inverting ten cars (disregarding the voting process, cause we know how it'll turn out). The problem remaining is, how do you make the race important enough to keep drivers and owners from skipping it?
Simple: make the results of the Winston (and Winston Open) the starting order for the following week's Coca-Cola 600. Under this plan, the twenty-four cars that participated in The Winston would fill starting positions 1-24 in the 600. Positions 25-36 would be filled by the cars that finished 2-13 in the Winston Open (the winner participated in The Winston), and positions 37 on existing us usual in Provisionia. This way, any driver who doesn't participate will automatically start no better that 37th in the 600. That'll keep the drivers in the race. 2:26pm
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Entry 59 May 31, 2003 12:00 am |
My dad came home from the hospital yesterday. A cancerous tumor was found in his asophagus, and it's currently too large to operate on. The doctors are gonna try radiation and chemo to try to reduce the tumor enough so they can operate.
Kidney dialysis begins Thursday. The pain in his leg is pretty much gone. And the stroke turned out to be a heart attack after all. A "mildly-severe" one at that, and there is some heart damage as a result.
But he was allowed to come home, so he must be feeling a little better.
I was led to believe that by expressing my thoughts on pages like this would be theraputic, and make me feel better; after all, that's one of the reasons I started this rant page in the first place. But every time I talk about my dad's condition here, I get the totally opposite effect; it makes me just think about it more. So if you guys don't mind, I'm not gonna talk about my dad's condition anymore here unless there's a major change one way or the other.
Did do that road trip last Saturday, and got the area around and just east of I-35 all the way to the Texas border (and yes, Lee, I stopped at that video store, just across the river and got a "souvenir"). That trip only lasted around 400 miles. ("Only" 400 miles. Sheesh!)
Did one more big road trip yesterday, the last major trip before
I start back on the night shift next week. Spent yesterday in the southwestern
part of the state. Basically, yesterday's trip comprised everything
in the picture at right that was south of Chickasha & west of I-35.
And you wanna talk hot? For most of the day I ran without the air conditioning, as the car has had a tendency on the past to begin overheating with it on. Especially with all the stop-and-go motions I do with it taking pictures. So for the first half of the day it was sun roof open, front passenger and rear driver windows cracked for ventilation. By the time I made it to Wichita Falls (saw some falls while there; if those are the falls the city was named after, I must say I'm really disappointed) my right arm was cooked a nice crispy brown, with my forehead not too far behind.
I have since been able to confirm an official high in the Lawton area yesterday of 100°, although there was an Indian casino just south of Lawton that was showing a 5pm temperature of 116°! I really, really hope their thermometer was broken!
You may be asking why, this being my last weekend before nights, why I didn't finish the southeastern part of the state. Well, with June having the latest sunsets of the entire year, I realized that, even on the night shift, I could still get off in the early, early afternoon on a weekend, head down to that particular area, and still have over five hours of sunlight with which to take pictures; not enough time to do the same in the southwestern part of the state. So hopefully, by the time I'm back on days in August, I'll already have the entire southeastern part of the state finished.
Oh, and the distance yesterday? A mere 771 miles. The trip to the southeastern part of the state was still longer. 11:45am
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