Dan's Blog

Where are you going Gustav?

2008-08-28T03:47:00Z

Are you ready for Gustav? I hope our Gulf coast friends are because it is headed
our way............sort of.......

Tonight it is Tropical Storm Gustav, but by Friday may be a Hurricane.

His winds tonight are near 45 mph but expected to strengthen.

The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center shows the center of Gustav about 100 miles south of Guantamo, Cuba.and he was moving WSW at about 8 mph.

That is right. Tonight it is moving West Southwest, not towards the Gulf. But he is expected to turn more northerly once it clears Cuba.

It is expected to pass near Jamaca Thursday and then all of the computer models move it NNW into the southern Gulf and towards the coast of the United States by Monday or Tuesday.

Hurricanes are beasts and very difficult to pinpoint where they will make landfall.
Post Katrina, you know residents will be watching much closer if it nears New Orleans.
I pray it doesn't, they are just beginning to get the city back together. The last thing
they need now is another storm.

I'll be watching closely Gustav over the next couple of days. Hoping the advisories
tomorrow will show it weakening but I fear it will not. Here is when you hope the
forecasts are all wrong.

Dan

When Will We Hit 100 ?

2008-07-22T03:19:00Z

    It has already happened in several towns. Today it was
101 in Sallisaw, and several other cities in Green Country have reached
triple digits. It was our hottest day, so far, this year when we reached
98 degrees at 2:59 pm this afternoon.

     I am expecting warmer weather tomorrow, so July 22nd may be our
first day.  Tonight I was looking through the records and found that
last July we did not reach 100. However baked in August, reaching
100 or warmer 6 times. Last August 14th it was 105, the warmest
of the summer.

     Still getting lots of calls from folks who's backyard thermometer
is well over 100. Please keep in mind that temperature is to always
be taken in the shade.   It should also be over grass about 6 feet off
the ground. Most home thermometers are not calibrated, and will
often read warmer than the actual temperature.

     Just a matter of time really. We will reach 100 this summer.
Just get ready for it!

Great Teachers

2008-07-17T03:38:00Z

     We all have those teachers we remember from our days in school.
Today I saw one of my favorites, his name is Jerry Porter. He and his
buddy Sam Parton own a top fuel dragster and use it as a teaching tool.
Back in the 80s they raced it and did pretty well. Today they take it
to schools all over the country and use it to teach and preach about
science, engineering, and math.

     Sam called it "the longest and loudest teaching tool in Oklahoma."
This dragster ran at nearly 300 mph and produced 5,000 horse power.
When they fire it up, you can hear it for blocks. It is an amazing
attention getter.

They were in Sand Springs at the high school doing a program for about
300 kids.   It's more than just old drag racing stories. They have the
kids make model rockets, airplanes, and little race cars. All the time
explaining things like; lift, drag, acceleration, g-forces, and physics.

     This program was brought here by the Josh Heupel Foundation to
help kids. http://www.the14foundation.com/

     Back to Jerry, as an impressionable teen he made English class
fun. He read us poems and exposed us to literature that I am sure
I would have never read on my own.   I'm sure he was right out of
college, not much older than us, and had a cool car. To this day
I remember him playing Simon & Garfunkel records and reading
us the lyrics as poetry. Pretty groovy stuff in the late 70s.

     Jerry had a sweet big block Chevelle with a cool gold paint job.
I almost thought about being a teacher because of him.  But I would
have never been as good, or as hip, as that drag racing English
teacher from Weleetka.

     If you want to find out more about Jerry Porter and his partner
Sam Parton you can go to thier "Team Thunder" site at:
http://www.team-thunder.org/

I wonder what ever happend to that Chevelle?

Take care,

Dan

Gas Prices

2008-07-16T02:14:00Z

     In my life, I never imagined I would be paying $4 for a gallon of gasoline.
Not in my lifetime.   Ask your parents or grandparents what they paid for a
gallon when they grew up and you will be shocked.   My step-dad owned two
Texaco stations, one in Weleetka and another in Okemah. My older brother
worked there, and I hung out with him (mostly just to be around my brother)

     Gas is always a little higher on the highway, and our Okemah station was
right off I-40 and always a few cents more per gallon. Once, when we raised
prices to 39-cents per gallon, I recall customers driving up, looking at the price then
driving off.   Sometimes squealing their tires, because they were mad at the
high price we were charging.

     Now folks will drive across town because someone is selling fuel a few
cents cheaper. It has had an impact on me, how 'bout you?   I drive less,
and even drive slower. My wife's car is a 4 cylinder car and when we are
going somewhere together, we always drive her car more than my truck,
because it gets more miles per gallon.

     My dad was on a waiting list for a SMART car.  Have you seen those little
things? When I saw my first about a year ago I laughed at it. It looked like
something you see in a circus. However, now it is starting to sound pretty good.
He couldn't wait unitl the fall of 2009 for his, so he broke down and bought
a Honda Fit.   It is a snappy looking little car that gets great gas mileage and
has a lot of room on the inside.   My friend Cliff bought a Fit too. Not sure
if I am ready for something that small yet. But if prices continue to rise,
we may all be forced to drive smaller vehicles.

     Here at KJRH, and perhaps where you work, the parking lot has changed
a bit in the past 6 months. Now we have more motorcycles and more
scooters in the newsroom parking lot. One of our photographers drive a
scooter from Mannford to Tulsa every day!  We have a couple of folks
who ride thier bicycles to work too.  George Flickinger has done it from Broken
Arrow, and George Waldenberger has a few times too.

     Yes, times are a changing.   I guess we all have to adapt, because I
am afraid that the days of cheap gasoline is over.   Not ready for a scooter
just yet, but I have already started driving a lot less, and keeping my
eyes open for something that gets a little better miles per gallon.

Gary Shore Remembered

2008-02-27T05:09:00Z

     Like most of you, I was shocked to hear of the passing of Gary Shore.
You just don't expect that of someone so young (he was 55) and full of
energy.   Gary was the Chief Meteorologist here at KJRH, then KTEW,
in the late 70s through the mid 90s but he was more than just the Chief.
He was an innovator and very passonate guy.

    While I never worked with Gary, our paths had crossed a few
times. As weatherman in Lawton, I would visit my family in Weleetka
and watch the Tulsa stations. If I was off on a weekday, I would
catch Gary on 2 and Don Woods on 8.   If it was severe weather
you watched Gary Shore. Period. I liked his style, a good communicator
and he knew his stuff. Without question, he was an excellent
meteorologist. He had his masters degree in meteorology from
Penn State and I read where he started keeping weather records
at the age of 12.

     When I became Chief here, I heard from Gary.
We chatted a bit on Oklahoma weather and he wished me well. Later,
after our station installed our new radar in Coweta, I heard from Gary.
He wanted to know what we had planned to do with our exixting radar
that towers over the building here on Brookside. Gary wanted
to know if we had planned to sell it, and if so that he would like
to have his station in Souix City, Iowa purchase it.   I told him
we had planned to keep it spinning and run both radars and he
sounded a bit disappointed. He asked me about staff members
who were still with the station and I told him he was still loved
in this market and how often folks asked me about him.

     News folks asked me if we had any video of Gary and I went
through our weather archives and found some airchecks and one of
Gary doing a "stand up" (that is a t.v. term when someone stands
and talks in front of something) in front of a tornado. You could
tell in his eyes he was loving every minute of it.

     I heard stories of how he loved to go out on a limb in
forecast, especially snow, when others in town would say
2" or 3" Gary would, on occassion, say 8" or 9" of snow.
Many remember this because most of the time he was
right. Gary loved a tough and challenging forecast.

     I so admire those early day pioneers. They were innovative,
bold, and took chances. They didn't have near the tools we have
today, but did a remarkable job keeping the public informed
and safe during severe weather.

     Gary Shore was one of a kind. Viewers in this market, as well
as Huntsville, AL and Sioux City, IA where he worked has left
a legacy.   Like Jim Giles, he was a class act.  They both raised
the bar high, the rest of us are just shadows of these two giants.

Good bye Gary.
They will never be another one like you.

My Co-Workers

2008-01-05T03:33:00Z

     I'm often asked about my co-workers, if they are as they seem on
the air, or if we all really like each other. They are and we do. For
some shops you can fake it and play nice while broadcasting together,
but behind the scenes it's not pretty.  Guess television is no different
than any other job, sometimes folks get along sometimes you don't.

     This is my 5th year here, and I've got to admit that I've never worked
with a stronger weather team. All have thier strengths, personalities, all just a
little different, but I've never worked with a nicer bunch of folks.
Our meteorologist, Julie, George, and G.W. (our name for George
Waldenberger), love weather. All of them. They come to work each
day with a good attitude, a spirit of teamwork, energy, and look
out for each other.  There is a passion here that is fun to be a part of.
They work together to make sure folks get their needed time off and
all seem to enjoy what they do. I think it shows on the air too.

     Julie is perky...you can't fake what she does. She loves people and
enjoys letting viewers know what to expect in the weather. Her smile
lights up the room and she puts her own personal touch on everything
she does. She has more energy than the rest of us could ever hope for.
Coming up with graphic ideas at 4am takes a very creative person,
but she does, every day she brings her A game. She is honest, sweet,
and the class of our department.

     George Flickinger, is a very hard worker. He is an excellent forecaster,
very innovative person, an outstanding storm chaser, is very insightful, and
a dry sense of humor that keeps us laughing. George knows and
loves meteorology. He may be one of the best meteorologist I have
ever worked with and is the sort of guy you would want to hang out
with and swap weather stories with. I enjoy watching is weekend show
because of all of the extra information he puts into every broadcast.

     G.W. our newest meteorologist and we could not have asked for
a better co-worker. The guy gets along with everyone. He such a fast
learner it is scary, he is a motivated and comes to work every day with
a great attitude. He is a very good meteorologist, a true team player,
and is sharp as a tack.  His first few weeks here, he tried so hard to
memorize how to correctly pronounce every town in our viewing area.
I know because he asked me about 40 or 50 towns and wanted to
make sure he pronounced "Chouteau" and "Inola" well enough so the
locals would not take offense. He takes a lot of pride in what he does
and wants to get it right.

    When someone leaves our station to go to work somewhere else,
we all sign a farewell card or pat them on the back to tell them what
we think about them. I just thought I wouldn't wait until then, to let
our weather folks know how I feel about them.

    These folks make my job so much easier. We all care about what
we broadcast, and are working to to better serve our viewers.
In the past couple of years management here has given us some impressive
tools to do our jobs, and continuing education so we can best utilize
the technology and improve our weather effort here.

    Julie, George, G.W. , you guys do a great job, and I am honored to
be working with you guys.  We had a good 2007, but 2008 is going to be
our best year yet.

Light 'em If You've Got 'em

2007-12-13T03:00:00Z

     Like most of you, I've been without power since Sunday night.
Each day there is news of electricity being restored somewhere.
And I get excited with the progress being made. Our news director
got his back yesterday, and our assistant news director also had power
restored.  But most of us continue to wait.

     Yesterday and again today, someone sent us an e-mail
complaining about folks who have their power back on and
were buring thier Christmas lights. They felt the folks may just
be showing off, while others are suffering. I don't feel that way
at all.

     I got excited tonight as I drove back from dinner. After a
fireside dinner in our cold house, I noticed a nearby neighborhood
who not only had power, but many had turned on their
Christmas lights. It looked fantastic and I smiled.   Good for them.
They will have a warm night and be able to walk through their
home at night without a flashlight.   Was I jealous?  Perhaps a little
I guess, but my turn will come in the next day or two or three.

     I know those hard working crews are working their tails off.
These folks are real heroes. Crews from the various utility companies
in our area and an amazing number of crews who drove in from
states all over this country, just to get us back online.  Most of these
saints are pulling some very long hours and spending many days away
from thier own homes and famalies trying to make life better for
the rest of us.

     It may be another week before we have power and heat
in our house, but I still hope others get their electricity on.  My
hope is to see more Christmas lights glowing not fewer. So
light'em if you've got 'em! We can all enjoy them.

Oklahoman's Centennial Celebration

2007-11-17T06:25:00Z

     Tonight I watched the big Oklahoma Centennial Celebration from Oklahoma City that
aired on OETA. Though I didn't watch it all, what I saw was impressive.

    I was born and raised in Oklahoma but never really thought about all of the great people from who call the Sooner State home. The show was packed with famous country singers like: Carrie Underwood, Garth Blooks, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, and Blake Shelton. Writer and singer Jimmy Webb, born in Elk City, was also on the show.

     I do not follow the Opra world, but when, Enid born, soprano Leona Mitchell sang, it was impressive. Wow what an amazing voice.

   It was great seeing the tribute to Will Rogers, one of the most famous Okies. Patti Page belted out a couple of songs. She said she had performed on Oklahoma's 50 anniversary. The gal can still sing.   They paraded out all of our former Miss Americas. I had no idea we had that many. A long time ago I had the chance to work with Jane Jayroe, Miss America 1967, and she was one of the kindest and classiest person I've ever worked with.

     There are a lot of famous Oklahoma athletes.   Former OU coach Barry Switzer was on the broadcast. Baseball greats Johnny Bench, from Binger, and Boby Murcer, born in OKC both on the big show.

     Though he is not from Oklahoma, at least not that I am aware of, weatherman Willard Scott did a long segment listing the names of living centenanians.   We have a lot of them according to Willard.   He cracked a few corny ad lib jokes and it was like I was watching the Today Show 10 years ago when he did the weather.

     Someone said the Flamming Lips were on, but I didn't catch them. The weatherman montage included meteorologist from Oklahoma City and Tulsa, which was nice they didn't leave us out. It was all a big intro to the Stillwater band that made it big, the All American Rejects. They sort of rocked the place and sounded good.

     Garth reminded us of what happened to all of us on that terrible day April 19th, 1995.
He did it with class and respect, but you sort of expect that from Garth.

     Again, I didn't see it all, but what I caught was outstanding.   It looked like quite a party, wish I had been there to see it in person.   Next time they rebroacast it on OETA, take a little time to check it out.

     Happy birthday Oklahoma. I've not been here the entire 100 years, but proud to be called an Okie.

Snow on Thanksgiving?

2007-11-15T05:15:00Z

     I didn't mention it on the newscast Tuesday, but I did tonight. The weather
models are pusing in a powerful cold front through the area Thanksgiving morning.
If this happens it will be turning much much colder by the end of next week.

I know, I know, it is still 8 days away, and the data will likely change, but right
now it sure looks impressive. Why is that important? Wednesday is one of the busiest
travel days of the year. A lot of folks will be on the roads and if there is rain or
snow, then it could have a huge impact on a lot of folks.

    Tonight's GFSX run shows most of the northern and central plains getting the first
shot of cold air of the season by Wednesday and Thursday. Overrunning moistre
could set us up for a wintery mix. I've seen this before, the data all points to a
solution but each and every day the solutions changes.   By the time the system
fgets here it looks nothing like it did in previous runs.

     So this far out do not get excited or worried. Do not change your plans,
or call your loved ones. Just stay tuned because there will be changes coming
by next Thursday.   Will in snow on Thanksgiving? Probably not, but the
data tonight sure gets your attention.   I'll update the forecast each night as
we get closer. Can't wait to see the data tomorrow.

     Have a good night, and stay tuned..........Cold Turkey anyone?

When Is Your Next Blog?

2007-11-09T05:06:00Z

     A caller asked me this yesterday, and I didn't have a good answer. I
don't blog everyday, just whenever the notion strikes me. It is usually
the last thing I finish before I head home for the night. I've started a few
before the 10pm then waited until I finished the late show to finish them.

     A friend of mine, a meteorologist in Kansas City, blogs every day.
Another, a chief meteorologist in Oklahoma City , even does a video blog
every morning from his house. It's a weather briefing he does from
his home office. He is usually not on camera, but I've seen it a couple
of times where he is sitting behind a desk wearing a t-shirt and hat.
Once I think I saw Rick in what looked like pajamas bottoms and a
old running race t-shirt. There is another weatherman I heard of this
past week, does an hour long all weather show on a radio station every
weekend.

     The point is, there is a huge demand for weather information.
People continue to be fascinated by weather. It has an impact on all
our lives. And while we know more about the weather now that
we have ever known, there is still so much to learn. If you look at
my blog I post here, it is often about other subjects.

     I love weather, and love talking about it. I have been fascinated
with the changes and impact of meteorology since I was young,
and I'm not alone.   All of  our meteorologists here here get
excited when we see a young person who has an interest in
science, engineering, and meteorology. Perhaps because we need
young minds in our field. The scinece continues to improve and
change. The technology is advancing so very fast that keeping up
is very demanding but also fun.

    So while I will continue to blog about random situations and
things going on in my life.   I'll also try to give you a bit more insight into
weather changes and interesting nuggets of meteorology I run
accross in getting my forecasts ready.   Not everyday mind you,
but as these things come along. I'll do my best to make sure you
never see me on camera in my pajamas too. Nobody wants to see
that.

Have a good night.

Dan

Radio, Bad Forecast, and 100mph ride

2007-11-03T03:26:00Z

    The alarm clock went off at 5:45 am this morning. I dressed and headed off
to K95.5 FM to be on the Cash and Carey morning show. I was told to get to
the building at 6:45am and then call the control room where I would be let into
the locked building and escorted to the studio.

     Sounded good until I got there. No one answered, so I waited and called
again, and again, and again. Thought I'd try the building to see if it happened
to be unlocked and found I could walk right in.  I had been on the show about
a year ago and remembered the studio was on the 5th floor so rode up and
tried the number one more time. No one answered.

    The door into the station was locked with the lights off. On the glass was
the logos of all the Cox radio stations so I dialed information and got the KRM
newsroom and asked if someone would let me in. I nice lady came and unlocked
the door and I made it there by 6:05 am.

    The two were great. Kelley Cash and Tom Carey were kind, laid back,
and seem to really enjoy what they do. I was on to promote a news story
I had done that is airing on Monday night at 10pm.   We talked and did a
trivia thing where listeners try to stump us. It was fun. What was odd is that
Travis Myers does the weather for them.   He records them the night before
and they re-run his recorded forecast over and over. He was talking about
sunshine and temperatures in the mid to upper 60s but that forecst was
already wrong. It was cloudy when the sun came up and stayed that way
all day.

     Hey I busted the forecast too! I think everyone did. Probably my worst
forecast in about a month. Every piece of data I looked at Thursday indicated
the clouds would break and we would warm into the mid 60s.   Models had a
weak wind shift line pushing SE during the morning hours and drier air moving in.
That never happened. We kept advecting in moisture on the weak SE winds.
The weak front didn't enter our area until tonight. A persistant deck of
stratocumulus kept my forecast high of 67 down to only 59. Ouch! You never
what to have an 8 degree bust in a forecast. It is very rare but sadly it happens.
I'm just glad it doesn't happen here very often.

     The news folks had me out at the Tulsa Raceway Park for the 5pm and 6pm
weathercasts. There they are having an event called MOPARs at the Park
on Saturday. It is a drag race, swap meet, and car show for mostly MOPARs.
I met Wade Metzinger, his wife, his dad and mom. They are all into drag racing
and fantastic people.

     Wade offered me a pass in his '71 Plymouth Barracuda and I couldn't
turn him down. The car is 36 years old and looks great.   Wade estimated
it had 650 horse power and they if I would wear a race jacket and helmet
he would take me down the track at near 100 mph. How can you say no to
that?   They strapped me in with a 5 point harness seatbelt and did exactly that.
It was a rush, and if I had the time and money, it would make a great hobby.

     Folks there stress that the drag strip is a much safer alternative to
street racing.   There you have tech inspections, rules, fans away from
the cars, an ambulance, and safety crews.   Racing on the street is
stupid, people are killed all the time. Why not take it to the drag
strip and let 'er rip.

    It's been a long day, still that 8 degree busted forecast is still bothering me.

Dan

A lot to See in Muskogee

2007-10-26T03:42:00Z

     Full disclosure here, I have a lot of family in Muskogee. My sis Debbie
and her husband and kids live in there. My other sister Cheryl, and her
husband and kids live there. My mom, my dad, my stepmother all live
there. My big brother Jerry drives there every day to work.

     So when I was asked to come and speak to the Rotary Club, I
couldn't wait.  I invited the two responsible for getting our new weather
camera to join me today, County Emergency management Dir. Eugene
Blankenship and Bacone's President Dr, Robert Duncan.

     We have been showing our new Bacone College camera from
Muskogee quite a bit the past week.  It is a great view of the
Muskogee area. It is a long and ugly link, but to see all it and all
our cameras select:

http://web.live.weatherbug.com/LiveCameras/1/LiveCameras.aspx?zcode=z5664&camera_group=1&show_list=1&lid=CENLIST

     Muskogee has a Huge airshow this weekend. The Blue Angles
will fly there along with the Army's Golden Knights parachute team.

     For Halloween the Castle has a lot to check out in Muskogee,
If you have kids, they have the USS Batfish there. It is an old
WWII submarine you can walk through and there is a little
WWII museum there.

     Folks travel from hundreds of miles to see Honor Heights Park
when the azeleas are in bloom in the spring. Around Christmas
they put on a huge Christmas light display at the park you can
drive through.

     There is a lot more there, but today at the Rotary Club talk
I met some nice folks who are very proud of their town. I love it
when people are anxious to tell you all about where they live.

      I talked about the weather in Muskogee county.   About the
big ice storm they had in January, and the fact there has never been
an F5 tornado recorded in Muskogee county.  They had an F4
in 1973 that killed 5 citizens and the tornado in 1945 that killed
13. They were suprised to hear about a tornado that was
rated F3 ( 158 - 206 mph ) that happend in December!

    It is great to get out of the studio and meet folks who watch.
I enjoy doing public speaking, especially when it is the same town
as all my family.

     Have a great night.

Dan

Weather Plus Is On The Air !

2007-10-23T03:25:00Z

     Tonight we showed viewers our newest channel 2News Weather Plus. It took
us 2 minutes to explain it, but we've been working in it for a couple of months now.
It is a channel with all local and national weather and it runs 24 hours a day.

     Weather Plus does what The Weather Channel once did, it actually covers the
weather. Now on TWC, you are lucky if you can catch a weather update, they now
are mostly concerned with doing programs about various subjects. That is all
well, unless you want to find out what the forecast is for tomorrow. As I type this,
The Weather Channel is showing a 30 minute program on surfing, but Weather
Plus is covering the rain in the southern plains.

     We wanted to have more than just a loop of local weather radar and a
recorded forecast, so we added a few things you can only see here. We added
live cameras from: Midtown Tulsa, Downtown Tulsa, our Brookside Camera, and
live cameras in Okmulgee, Henryetta, Mannford, Muskogee, Pryor, and Bartlesville.
(we will add more live cameras later)

     We also added detailed forecasts for 12 cities. These show the temp, wind,
rain chances, and sky cover for every 3 hour period.  It cycles through
Vipir 2, Double Doppler 2, and our meteorologist doing weathercasts.

     I watched some of the national coverage today on Weather Plus and
was impressed. They had live report from the fires in the west and another
reporter in the SE talking about the continued drought.  The on-camera
meteorologists were good and I found myself watching it for about 20 minutes,
when I should have been working.

     There will be some cases when we do severe weather coverage live
on both our regular KJRH channel as well as our digital 2.2 channel. I see
the day when we do some of our extended severe weather coverage on our
digital channel but not on our regular KJRH channel. Perhaps when more
folks have access, we can say on the air, "we are going to take you back to
regular programming now, but for those of you with digital 2.2 we will
continue our coverage."

     One of our engineers found a 12" digital television at Wal Mart for $99.
It is not high definition, but you can see digital programs with an antenna
for free! Remember the day before cable when television didn't cost you
anything? They stuck an antenna on our building here on Brookside and
can watch 2News Weather Plus at digital 2.2. That is pretty cool.

        In Tulsa you can find it on cable channel 222.  Our hope is other cable outlets
will be adding this to their lineup. If you can't find it in your town, call your local
cable company and ask them to add it. Look for us to add even more weather
elements to the new channel in the future.

       It would be great to get your feedback on the new channel. Good,
bad, or ugly, let me know what you think about our 2News Weather Plus,
by writing me at: threlkeld@kjrh.com Time to get out of here for the night,
want to catch Conan, and a little Weather Plus.

Dan

RENO 911

2007-10-21T03:40:00Z

     I've been off the air for a few days, out at the National Weather Association's
Annual conference in Reno.   It was a great meeting but I never saw
Lieutenant Dangle protecting the mean streets of Reno.

     Reno a neat little town that is growing rapidly. My wife and I were there about
9 years ago and it was suprising to see how much it had developed. There are
more casinos now and much more housing.   One morning I walked from the
hotel, Circus Circus, to the west to the River Walk. The west side of the river
has some beautiful cliff side mansions. The trees were already changing colors
and I had wished I had brought my camera.

     There wasn't time for it this trip, but last time around we went over to Lake
Tahoe.  I would strongly suggest this day long trip.  We took a narrated bus tour
with a stop at Carson City, a little mining town preserved for tourists, then we drove
by where they shot the television show Bonanza. The Ponderosa was kept up
for tourists and there were even horses running around.  The driver then pointed
out where one of billionaire Bill Gates; houses were.

     The weather conference was great, but I wanted to get home a day earlier to
be ready for the storms coming.   After a long day of sitting in airports I
made it back to Tulsa at 6pm. Had a wrinkled suit in my suitcase and got on the
air in time for the storms. I spent almost 4 hours in the Denver airport and read
a couple of magazines and made numerous calls to the station for updates on
our crews and to get the latest on the storms.

     It felt good to know our team had a good handle on things. George, Julie, and
G.W. did a fantastic job getting viewers ready. I watched the tapes of the
newscasts that day, and find it very hard to believe anyone was suprised there
were storms coming.   I'm very proud of our meteorologist and feel we have the
best team in place since I've been at 2. They love the weather, get along with
each other, and are just good people. I'm biased of course, but enjoy watching
them.

     An interesting week, still it would have been nice to see Lt. Dangle.

Dan

Size Does Matter !

2007-10-07T03:18:00Z

     It has been a long time since I could exercise without pain. About 8 months ago I
had a partial tear of my achiles tendon. I did what the doctor told me to do but every time I tried to start up running again, it hurt. The only thing that helped has been rest, and so I lost most of my conditioning and gained weight.

     I got cranky, frustrated, and depressed not being able to run. Now I am starting the long road back and found out that size does matter. I am now much slower on my bike, and my running pace is now pitiful. Still it is great to be back out there.  Exercise is my stress relief
and my wife knows it. She's looking forward to me running again.

     Before my injury, 30 miles was the distance for a run, not a bike ride. But I wanted
to take it easy and not hurt myself. I've been riding a bit the last month and found out
this does not hurt my achilles like running. So this morning I rode the Katy Trail into Tulsa
to get on the River trail. I avoided the trail construction by jumping over to the west side. The constrution will be nice once completed but what a big pain right now.

     Being out of shape and now much heavier, it slowed my average down to a snail's
pace of 15.6 mph. My heart rate monitor peaked at 170 bpm. In all the ride was
1 hour and 44 min. and I did 27.05 miles. Short and slow, but still, it was fun being out
this morning.

     I've got a long way to go, and probably too early to get ready for the Tulsa Run, but hope to find a race in the spring to shoot for.   Just want to get stronger and work on getting back into some sort of shape. I find I am happier and more productive when I run. If you are not
into exercise, I would recommend it. Check with your doctor and start walking. You
don't have to go far, just start out easy and slowly work your way a little farther.

     That what I am doing. Each day working on getting a little stronger.   I don't remember the author, but the quote goes something like this, "Do a little more each day than you think you can." Just don't push yourself too hard too soon. It may be running, or walking, or
riding, or swimming, roller blading, or aerobics, find something you enjoy doing and get
out there and do.

     Have a good night.

Dan