The Blizzard of '09

The weathermen started talking about it about four days before it hit (these guys really are much better than they were 20 years ago!). The forecasted track of the storm was changed several times but was always near Tulsa.

The sleet started about noon on Christmas Eve and fell for about two hours before it switched to snow. Louise and I took the grandkids to their aunt's house during the sleet and the road conditions deteriorated while we were delivering them! We had wind gusts to about 40mph and, later in the afternoon, almost had "whiteout" conditions. By the time the snow quit, we had about 6" on the ground here.

I used to think having a "White Christmas" was neat. Now I think its a Pain in the A**. Oh well, everyone did survive the Blizzard of '09!

Moral Dilemmas

Dan and Dorinda were visiting over the Holidays and they found a dog in downtown Tulsa. They brought it to our house and ran an ad on Craigs List to try to find the owner.

In the meantime, everyone fell in love with Herb (we found out his name later). He is about two years old, neutered, housebroken, and very well mannered. I had already decided that Louise and I would keep the dog if the owner wasn't found.

Dan and Dorinda made a pass through the neighborhood where they had found Herb and, sure enough, there were posters up looking for him. It was an extremely difficult decision for everyone in our family to call the number on the poster and tell them that we had their dog. In the end, though, we were glad we did and I'm sure Herb's owner was glad.

The picture shows Herb licking Dan's boot with Lucy, our Granddog, looking on. It was one more event in a very memorable Christmas season.

Christmas is Coming

I'm excited! Only 11 more days and we get to have our family all together. Dan and Dorinda will get in this Saturday - that night we will have them, our grandchildren Nathan and Gabby, and possibly a couple or three granddogs staying at the house.

The weather here would lead you toward getting into the Christmas spirit. It was 50° at 7:00 a.m. this morning and by 8:00 a.m., it had dropped to the mid-30's. Nice and brisk!

I'll take a picture of the Guineas this week and post it. We are about to get them grown enough to not worry about them. Just in time too, if we are going to go off to south Texas.

Christmas Lights

Well, I finally got around to taking pictures at night of the lights on the tower. This would make a good picture for a ham radio Christmas card. If I had painted the tower flat black it would not have shown up as brightly as it did.

This is a "yucky" day. It has been drizzling and overcast all day and the temps didn't get over 46° all day.

I also took a picture of the tree inside the house and posted it just for grins.

We've got a lot of things to do to get ready for the Holidays and our upcoming trip to South Texas. If this weather stays like this, I'll be ready to go next week! My most fervent wish is that everyone has a very happy holiday season.

Running a Net

In my work, I have always had to do a great deal of public speaking. Like most other people, I would always get apprehensive before a presentation, but I got to where I could almost enjoy it.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the two meter net for the Tulsa Amateur Radio Club for the first time and it was just like public speaking. I had some jitters but, as soon as I got started, I really enjoyed it. In fact, I was pretty proud of myself after it was over.

Well, last night was a totally different story! I still had the jitters but things only went downhill from there. The repeater I was supposed to be on didn't work and I didn't have the presence of mind to switch over to the UHF link which was also supposed to be involved. I knew something was wrong but I couldn't figure out what to do about it.

At any rate, after the equipment problem, I never could seem to regain my composure. The only good thing is that the club is not going to cut my pay! Being the eternal optimist, I'm sure I'm gonna do better next year.