Wednesday, June 4, 2003
06:58 a.m.
I'm all moved in to my new house! It's a lot more work that I've bargained for, but I didn't think for a second it was going to be easy. Now I need to get in touch with all of my friends and family to let them know my new address. And at my rate, I should have that finished by the end of the year.
I took a few moments off this week to go fishing. It's the first time I've fished in the state of Kansas. I caught an 18-inch catfish, and brought it to a friend's pond where it will probably live out the rest of it's life. Old Charlie should keep that fish fat and happy.
Wednesday, May 14, 2003
07:06 a.m.
This week I continue to be pretty busy. I had a morning shot yesterday in Chicago. Today I'm in Wisconsin, and after this job I have to take off quickly for Kansas. Tomorrow I am closing on my house. After that I take off for another job. I should have a few hours to get a few things moved into the new house before I have to take off again, but I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to get a significant amount of stuff moved. That's O.K., because I have about 45 days to get everything moved before my lease is up on my side of the duplex. That gives me enough days to move and enough days to get the place cleaned up so I can get my damage deposit back.
This week I was able to stop in to see a lot of my family. Last Saturday I was going to stop in to see my mom for Mother's day, but when I called home there was no answer. I called my sister to see if she knew where mom was, and she said they were going to Sensor's with a bunch of people to celebrate Mother's day. It just so happened that I would be going through there about that time, if I continued north to the Twin Cities, so I agreed to meet up with them there.
I was able to see my mom, my grandma, my aunts Pat and Donna, my cousins Wendy and Julie, their grandma Murine, my sister Rachel, my second cousin Madison and my uncle John. (Now I think that's everybody. I'm sorry if I left anyone out.) We had a good time. It was a good central meeting spot for everyone, it wasn't too busy or loud so we could all talk for a while.
After that I headed out to my boss's place to get my truck washed and cleaned out for a job the next day. I stopped in to see my brother the next day. We went out to see X2 and I was able to see Travis Johnson, one of the boys I grew up with across the alleyway from our childhood home in Spring Valley.
I better get off to today's job. I'm a little unsure of the exact call time, so I'm going to try to get there early.
Sunday, May 11, 2003
10:53 p.m.
It has been far too long since I've written anything, mostly because it has been far too long since I've had any decent sleep.
This past week I covered six days of tornado coverage, which basically went 24-hours a day. Any "off-time" was spent getting food, setting up for the next shot, moving the truck, or re-fueling the satellite truck.
I close on my house this week, in-between two different jobs. I will be driving through the night to get to the signing, then I will be driving a half-day again. It's pretty exciting, so I'm sure I will blow through it without any big issues.
I am, however, wondering when I will actually move in to my new house. It will probably take a few days to get everything moved, and we've been busy enough that I have not had three days to get any of my regular projects done. They will all have to be moved to their new location, i.e. a new desk or table in the basement where it should stay nice and cool this summer.
Saturday, April 26, 2003
05:29 p.m.
I got back from Iowa last night, and in a few minutes I'll be heading to Nebraska. Getting home gave me just enough time to get some things done before I head out again.
I think I have about 5 hours of driving tonight. That's a cakewalk.
Thursday, April 24, 2003
06:26 a.m.
I had a somewhat eventful drive up here to Omaha this morning. When I came upon the Iowa weigh scale at 4 a.m., it was open! What the hey?
I pulled into Omaha just a little while ago, set up my laptop and BANG found an open wireless port, which is really the only reason I chose to blog today.
It's only giving me 30-45% of signal, because I'm only using the computer antenna, not an external antenna. With a cantenna from here I should be able to hit close to 100%, but I haven't bought one yet.
Too bad I don't have any chalk. Oh well.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
06:43 p.m.
We had one day of sunlight, and now the rain is back. I'm hoping the rain is gone by the time I take off tonight. I'm on another little whirlwind tour that will take me out of town for a few days, and I'm pretty excited. These few days off did give me a chance to work on some projects, get the satellite truck washed and waxed, and finish some articles I've been working on for the past few weeks.
I missed Easter this year, which was a big bummer. I'm hoping that I will have some time up in Minnesota this month to make up for it. Of course, every time I've been in MN, it hasn't been enough time to see everyone I've wanted to see.
I'm counting down the days to my closing date on the new house. With the new house come some big costs, and some big projects on the horizon. If the costs are too big, I will probably have to look at getting a roommate. But I'll worry about that later, when I need to worry about it.
One big advantage to the new house is that I will be living in a better cell area. Most of the calls I make or receive here at home get knocked off or send me to a tower with poor reception, which eventually knocks me off. Apparently the guy on those Verizon commercials has never checked out the reception in Kansas. Can you hear me now? Hello? Hello?
I'm going to try to make a wedding reception in Minneapolis on the 3rd of May. Hopefully that will give me an extra day or two to catch up with family and friends.
Monday, April 14, 2003
10:01 p.m.
O.K. I'm finally making some moves on my new house. I will have to call the finance guy tomorrow, and I will have to get the mechanical, termite structural and environmental inspections underway in the next week. I'm also trying to figure out how to get in a trip to Minnesota for this Easter Sunday. I honestly don't have the time to take such a trip, but I really have to do it. I am also trying to go up on the weekend of May 3rd, two weeks after this weekend. And I need to try to make it up there in July for a class reunion.
I got a batch of wine made last night. And that's something I haven't done in quite a while. It's one of those many hobbies that went on the back burner when I got busy at work. The kit and ingredients had been taking up valuable counter space, but I really couldn't start the project with the temperatures going up and down so much in the past few months. Right now we have had some steady temperatures, and we should for the next few months, where I don't need to be kicking on the heat at night and screwing up the temperature of the house. I haven't had any batches blow up (although I can't say the same for my homemade beer), but I'm still over cautious since it would be an awful mess and I'm not prepared to try to clean up red wine stains from the ceiling.
That alone is the reason why I've never messed with sparkling wine. The idea of natural carbonation is scary, and I don't know if I'll ever actually try it. I've heard horror stories of basements that will eternally smell like breweries because a batch or two blew up everywhere. The funniest thing about the whole brewing process is that I probably drink less than 1% of what I make. If I make one batch of wine, that means 25 bottles, which means 4 glasses. If I make one batch of beer, that mean 50 bottles. And while a batch will typically of either will keep about one year, I try to use up either one by the time it gets six months old. Otherwise I risk the cork rotting on the wine, or the beer getting old and skunky (which hasn't happened yet). But if I had to guess how much I drink per week, it's probably an average of one bottle of beer per week or one bottle of wine per week. And I find that I can cook with the leftovers of either one.
Speaking of cooking, the other day I started cooking something and I was planning to go out to a movie or something afterwards. While making some pasta, I reached for a bottle of olive oil but didn't get a good enough grasp. Boooooosh! I got olive oil all over the kitchen floor. About 3 hours later I got the floor back to new. It took forever to get clean because it's real tile and the olive oil went down into the grout in the floor where I had to scrub and scrub to get it out. It was not a fun night.
I'd better get a good night's sleep tonight. I have a ton of work to do tomorrow.
Saturday, April 12, 2003
08:51 a.m.
How did I end up with two motorcycles?
It's really amazing how a person accumulates so much stuff. There was a time in my life when I used to take a whole day, called "throwing day" where I threw away as much stuff as I could. That annual event became a bi-annual event, and now I try to have a throwing day every three months.
Mail is the biggest culprit. Well, actually junk mail is a large culprit. It piles up the same way spam piles up in your email inbox if you don't delete stuff daily.When I'm gone for only a week or two, the mailman can barely cram another piece of mail in there. It gets so bad that I know one of these days, I'll actually have to un-do the bolts on the mailbox just to get the letters out without damaging them.
Don't even get me started on the front door. Let's just say that it's a rare talent, the way the FedEx guy manages to cram all of those packages in there without having them break through the glass on the storm door.
Before I moved down to Kansas I bought a pickup from my cousin Travis. While we've had a strained relationship from the start, the pickup and I have come to an understanding. While I probably don't pay as much attention to the truck as I should, it gets a lot of time off and I make sure to keep the gas tank full of fresh fuel at least once a month.
Soon after moving here to Kansas, the pickup took on a nickname, "The Green Hornet." The dual exhaust and glass-packs gave it a growling and snapping sound, just a little like a hornet.
I decided to keep my other pickup when I came down here. But I wasn't driving it very much. Last winter, my neighbor Johnny needed a vehicle to drive to work, so I lent him the S-10 for a while. At some point, we just traded up. He had a nice little motorcycle that was lightweight, sporty and fast. And even though it needs a little bit of work, it should be a great extra bike to have in the fleet. I will probably turn it into a naked bike, taking off the fairing and the windshield.
I'm off to an auction on the south side of town, near a little township called Reno (nothing like its sister city in Nevada). Apparently the original owner of all the stuff died. He was a big collector of John Deere stuff.
Thursday, April 10, 2003
06:33 p.m.
I was on a mission to get a lot done today. And it worked. I'm on my way towards purchasing a house (I only have to fill out the paperwork.) and I took on some other projects that needed to get done, such as re-wiring some lights on the truck and washing and sweeing out the truck.
I thought there would be more news out of Lawrence regarding Coach Roy Williams, but we haven't heard anything yet.
Since I won't have to be doing anything around Easter, I may just try to make it up to Minnesota and see some family at that time.
Monday, March 31, 2003
09:01 p.m.
Over the past few weeks, every time I tried to add an entry to this blog it wouldn't work, so that's my excuse for not writing until today.
I'm buying a house and have been pretty busy on the road. So I guess that life is good.
Tuesday, March 4, 2003
10:44 p.m.
We are at the tail end of an incredible ice storm that hit Kansas and Missouri, and large parts of the midwest. I went out to Lawrence to get some errands done, but I didn't stick around long enough to do any other shopping. There was just too much sliding around and skidding on the ice, and I thought my truck would look much better in my garage than with a large scratch caused by a totaled Honda.
This morning we were in Maryville, MO to do a story on a farmer who found a million dollar meteorite. He found the thing about a year ago, and then had the thing rolling around in the back of his truck. He was showing it off to people for a long time, and just thought it was "neat."
I have a K.C. job on Friday, and then at some point next week I will be up in South Dakota. It will probably be the last cold spell I'll get to go through this year, and then hopefully I can have a nice warm week at home to get both of my motorcycles ready for the summer. It's just been too cold to deal with them yet, since I do not yet have a heated garage.
Saturday, March 1, 2003
09:16 a.m.
I made it home from D.C. yesterday, and now I'm heading off to Illinois for a basketball game. It sounds like I could be back here in K.C. for Sunday or Monday. Or I could also be in Omaha. Either way, it should mean getting home for a few days.
D.C. was a pretty good trip. It seemed like everything was turning for the worse. Marianne wasn't feeling good. It snowed almost every day. The satellite conference had a raincloud over the whole place, with vendors all talking about cutbacks or losing clients. And everyone had obviously cut back on their show displays, in part because they were saving up to show the good stuff at N.A.B. or because they just couldn't afford the marketing revenue, A.K.A. smoke and mirrors.
I'm trying to write up a synopsis of what I could bring back with me. And it isn't easy. There was a large show from startups trying to prove they have the best Internet-over-Satellite system. And truth was they were the same, or they couldn't answer a straightforward question regarding upload speeds. If they did answer, it either wasn't true or wasn't very accurate.
I'd better hit the road.
Saturday, February 22, 2003
09:15 p.m.
It's my birthday and I'll download if I want to... I'm making use of this 1MB internet connection while I've got it!
Today I finished up my basketball game, and then headed south to put a few miles on, but not enough that it got me out of the Chicago area. I am on hold just in case something happens there this weekend. If we don't hear anything by noon tomorrow, I am going to mosey on back home to Kansas.
I got calls from family and friends today wishing me a happy birthday. And every one of them made me very happy. I even received a happy birthday from someone I haven't even met yet, and it was such a nice gesture.
I should be home by tomorrow night or Monday morning, hopefully enough time for me to pack for my Tuesday flight, pay all my bills before I leave, and hopefully get a haircut.
The snow started falling, and then blasting down when I got about half-way down here to Lafayette. I think I got a hotel room just in time. I got in a quick workout, only 3 miles on the treadmill today... it's my birthday after all. I still have time for the whirlpool, unless I get side-tracked.
I got a call from Gulflink regarding some positions in, I believe North Carolina and Atlanta. While they sound very nice, I have no intentions of leaving Relay House. I'm just having too much fun, and I couldn't imagine working anywhere else (except maybe here in beautiful Indiana).
I passed on a bunch of names, and then called or emailed a bunch of the people on that list to let them know they would be getting a phone call or an email. I hope somebody takes them up on a position. There are two open, and either place would be a great place to work. Convincing people to move is another story. People think they have roots, and just outright refuse to move. And that's just too bad. I would have never thought that I would love Kansas so much, but I do. There is a higher quality of life, and a lower cost of living. And while I would like to live near the mountains or near the ocean, you just can't have it all. Unless you win the lottery. Then you can have it all. And apparently it helps if you buy tickets.
Friday, February 21, 2003
05:30 p.m.
One of my best stories this week was covering some student investors in Upper Michigan. While at Michigan Tech, I was just amazed at the leftovers of their Winter Carnival.
Yards and open areas were full of enormous snow sculptures, some as big as the sorority and frat houses where they were parked. There were pirate ships, a two-story big boy, an entire house made of snow and ice, and fairy tale characters with dragons and knights.
After the shoot, I spent a couple of hours walking around the campus, just taking pictures of all of the snow sculptures. I stopped for lunch with our freelancer, Sandy at a little restaurant called the "Library." It's a pretty popular idea, to call a restaurant or bar in a college town "The Library." The running joke, I guess, is that when the college kids parents call, the roommate can tell them they are at "the Library," and they will be telling the truth.
The town reminded me of a Hallmark Card. There was snow everywhere, stacked up ten feet or more in front of most of the houses and businesses. There were snowmobiles everywhere, easily the second and sometimes the first method of transport for much of the town and campus.
From what I heard from the locals, Houghton is quite the town in the summertime, too. I'd love to go up there, maybe take a trip out to Isle Royale for a little while. The fishing must be good. There were about a thousand ice houses out there.
I spent the last couple of days going through Wisconsin. I'm sure I could have been a lot more productive with my time, because I only got about half as much done as I should have on my "day off." I got in a workout, and a sit in the jacuzzi, because I do have my priorities.
After tomorrow's basketball game I will head back to Kansas. Then I'm off to D.C. next week for the Satellite 2003 Conference.
Sunday, February 16, 2003
10:41 p.m.
I'm back in the Chicago area after an awesome week on the road. My stop in Indiana was most worth noting. Very nice. Life is certainly good.
I had a couple of basketball games last weekend, now my next job is some financial story in about the most remote place you would think.
I got in a workout today and yesterday, which was very nice. Now it's jacuzzi time!
Monday, February 10, 2003
06:25 p.m.
Awesome weekend. I worked Friday and Saturday in Colorado. Sunday I went snowboarding in Loveland. The altitude was pretty high... I have trouble remembering everything.
Another load of laundry and I'm hitting the road again.
There's a whole lot of basketball going on!
Thursday, February 6, 2003
07:51 p.m.
I've been on a whirlwind tour of Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and now Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan. Whew!
I got my laundry done, so I guess it's time to go again.
Driving Log
Jan 31 2003
I'm heading to Macomb, IL, left K.C. a little before noon. I have about 9 or 10 miles left to go, and I need to get there and checked in quick, since it will be a pretty early call-time in the morning. I should probably make a trip to the store tonight, since it will be hard to get anything done here in the morning.
I talked to Marianne today. I was in Hannibal, Missouri when she called. The hills weren't the best place for cell phones, so once I got down to the riverside I called back. There are a lot of shakeups and shakedowns in the industry right now. A couple of satellite truck companies have let a bunch of people go, and I've been getting a lot of calls from people asking me for leads to any jobs out there. She was telling me about some teleports and space providers who are doing the same. There doesn't seem to be any end to it right now, among these larger companies. Among smaller companies, like ours, we can be smaller and more agile for our clients. And times, they're a changing.
I also talked to my brother Drew last night. He was coaching at this gym in LeSeur, MN and was very upset by the poor quality of the gym. At one point, it was probably a very nice gym. But with the lack of upkeep, and the presence of a "drop stage" with an open curtain, the place just didn't look safe, and he complained openly to the referee. He remembered back to when he was attending Winona State when a player was injured in a similar gym. So all he's thinking about is that he is in charge of all of the girls he's coaching, and he will be to blame (not to mention feel guilty for a long time) if one of the girls were to get injured. He described an unsafe floor, curtains where they should not have been, and open curtains where they should have been shut. One curtain hung over the backboard, and was supposedly not in the way to any girl doing a lay-up. Of course, a couple of his girls could shoot 3's, and were unable because the curtain hanging over the backboard was in the way of the higher-orbit shots. On top of that, the refs wouldn't listen to anything he said. Had he not been in his first year, and had a little more experience of challanging authority, he surely would have stopped the game due to the refs putting his players in danger. He's is now writing some letters of complaint to anyone who will listen. And I don't know that he writes too many letters like that. Maybe he'll stir up a little bit of trouble. In a small town, you can't pass wind without somebody talking about your breath.
In the end, he couldn't stir up too much trouble, since he will be complaining about a gym in another town. I assured him that he did do the right thing. By complaining, he absolved himself legally. But more importantly, I told him that the whether parents are there or absent, he is and will always be responsible for his players. You should think about them first, and then let the school boards be responsible for how much it will cost to fix their problems. I also told him that it will not hurt your "season" to throw in the towel before a game, especially when you are dealing with the welfare of 7th and 8th graders. Can you imagine the trouble you would stir up if you, the winningest team in the area were to refuse to play a game in an unsafe gym? Your players would be upset with you that afternoon, but would certainly understand and appreciate you in the future.
I talked to my sister Rachel for a while. She was helping out at the hockey game at her school by taking care of the penalty box. The first jv game was cut short. The ref came skating over and told Rachel that the goalie for one of the teams told the ref to "f-off." So the ref stopped the game. Their team didn't have anyone to substitute, so they had to forfeit the game. I'm a little curious as to what the ref said to the goalie to provoke him. I'm sure the ref would claim innocence, but usually there's something underlying any kid saying something like that. Of course, I recall doing stupid things without prevocation. It's just part of being a teen, and thinking that you're bulletproof. There was only one kid who was in the penalty box during the varsity game, so Rachel got to enjoy most of the game from one of the best seats in the arena. She will probably do more of these things. It's all about being part of the community. If people continually ask you to volunteer, and you continually say "no," people don't tend to make you part of their community.
I'm staying at the Days Inn tonight. It's up by the college, apparently the Midwest's version of the Hilton. They will probably have the little soaps in the bathroom, the bathrobe and the jacuzzi. The concierge will most likely lay out something very nice for me.
McComb, IL, Population 18,000 people. The speed limit is 30, and it is radar patrolled, I'm sure.
On the way here, when I stopped in Hannibal, I was hoping to eat at the leaping frog cafe. Unfortunately it is a seasonal restaurant, not unlike most of the downtown. I walked down main street. I think they moved a lot of things down near the river after they added anti-flooding measures, like a large levy and a much different waterfront than you can imagine in Mark Twain's days. Most years are pretty calm, but when the flood waters come in, they're bad.
So I ate at the Mark Twain Restaurant. It's pretty middle-of-the-road as far as restaurants go in mid-America. I walked by Tom Sawyer's house, the white-picket fence he tricked his friends into whitewashing. I don't know if they know this, but Tom Sawyer is a fictional character.
On second thought, I will get my groceries in the morning. I recall from last year that I went to a 24-hour grocery store.
Driving Log
Feb 1, 2003
It's a very big day in history. Another shuttle has crashed, this time during a controlled landing. It broke up over the state of Texas. It happened not unlike a lot of events I've witnessed in my life. For some reason, I just happened to be watching or listing to the news when it occured. I was watching Fox this morning, and they were planning to cut to the landing. A lot of news stations and national networks have done this for the past twenty years, cutting to the launches or landings simply because that is the most dangerous part of the mission. It always seem to be something of interest, and it comes free from NASA.
I'm going to Topeka tomorrow to do a story related to the crash. On Tuesday I'm doing a job so that another company could go south to cover the crash. Chances are we will get a similar job like that directly after that. Everybody went south, and I would have, too if I wasn't sitting in Western Illinois when the crash happened.
This next weekend I will be heading out west to cover a double-header of hockey. And I'm really excited about that.
I could not find a postcard in McComb, IL. But since I know I can get one in Hannibal, and I am going back through there, I will send one to Indy. I'll pick a different restaurant in Hannibal today.
There was another possible job in Iowa, but it looked like it would be pretty tight. It also means that I would not be able to get any sleep before having to head to Topeka. Either Randy will cover it, or the network may also ask an affiliate to go over there. It's another shuttle-related story. Networks have tended to stray away from using affiliates, in part because they've been burned by affiliate trucks who tend to cater to themselves first, and the network second. Whenever we are booked, the client owns our truck for that day.
Since I will actually be getting home for a few hours tonight, that means I should also get a few hours of sleep.
There's a little bit of snow left here in Illinois. It's hard to believe, since today it's in the fifties. It's also surprising because the midwest really hasn't had that much precipitation, and I dont' remember any snowstorm hitting here in the past week. Driving through some of these towns, you'd almost call them depressed. They don't look good. Sometimes I think my town could use a facelift, but it makes some of these places look really bad.
I certainly would not want to be speeding on a day like this. There are a lot of smokeys out there. I just passed one, all lit up.
Driving Log
Feb 3, 2003
I just got done in Oklahoma and I'm heading to a job in Arkansas. It was a last-minute job that popped up just before I was to head north again.
I heard that my boss Randy had a pretty difficult day. After a job, one which he got home at midnight, he packed his bag and left home again at 3 a.m. for a flight at about 7 a.m. in the morning. He got to the airport, got on the plane, and while they were getting de-iced something electrical went out and the plane went dark. They sat there on the tarmac with no electricity, pretty much in the dark, until they could get a part and replace it. And I'm sure that once they got the part replaced they had to start deicing all over again.
Before my next job I should have some free time to get in a few hours of relaxing, maybe I can catch up on some reading. Since I don't have to drive tomorrow, there may even be a place where I can pick up an adult beverage and watch the KU game. I could have even stayed another night in Tulsa, but I hear that Fayetteville is a very nice town, and I'd really rather get the driving done now rather than later.
February 5, 2003
I'm in place for a basketball game here in Arkansas. It sounds like after this I will click my heels three times and head back to Kansas. There I should have a few hours to get some laundry done, and then head to Colorado for hockey this weekend. I need to stop by my home in Kansas to pick up my skates (after all, I'm sitting at a hockey rink and a practice rink all day), and I'm also planning to bring my snowboard in hopes that I will get in some time at Winter Park or Steamboat.
Saturday, January 25, 2003
11:48 a.m.
It's another nice day in Colorado. After the hockey game tonight, I'll head back to my hotel for a few more hours of sleep, and then try to get an early start in the morning.
My birthday is coming up, and I'm trying to plan something. But since Steve is taking his vacation that week, I will probably be working like last year. I'll just have to buy myself something like last year, too. I don't know that I'll buy another trap set, but maybe a cymbal or something.
