How Can an Entire County be on Fire?

Yesterday was one of the most windy days I have ever seen. I went and did a pintsize sports story and it was one of the hardest shoots I've done in a while. Our sports guy wanted a lot of natural sound, well, all he got was a lot of wind.

I didn't think much more about the wind till I realized that we had all of our crews chasing brush fires. I kind of forgot that since we are in a drought, that when it's that windy if can help cause fires. I didn't think too much about it till I kept hearing one word, Franklinton. Even though we are technically in Wake Forest I actually live in Franklin county and live eight miles from Franklinton. Then I found out that most of Franklin county is on fire, I called The Wife and asked if Fried Chicken Drive is well not fried. I love her response, "Is that why I keep hearing fire trucks?" She had no idea that everything around the county was on fire. Fortunately, we are fine, it did come that far south everything stayed about 3 miles north of us.

I was worried for most of the night I kept wondering what I should tell The Wife if she sees the fire, what should she grab? Wedding photos, the lock box, the external hard drive and some clothes? We do have renter's insurance, but still to lose would be awful, I hope this ever happens to us.

Random Thoughts

I've not really posted this month and it's not from lack of substance, it's has been a case of bad timing. We went on vacation, had house guests, crazy at work. So to get caught up here are some random thoughts:

VACATION

We had a good six day vacation. It started with The In-laws visiting. To be honest with The In-laws it's a role of the dice. Either it can be a nice visit or we feel worse after they leave. Fortunately for us the dice fell our way and it was a good visit. They were surprised about how nice Fried Chicken Dr was, it almost got the the point I started to wonder if they had thought we had bought a trailer and the the Honda would be on blocks in the front yard and trash and cats would be all over the place. I take The Father-in-law golfing and we had a decent time. I started off with my usual crappy play and he started off well, but somewhere around hole 7 I started to get relaxed and as usual my game improved to a near respectable level. I started to slide back down around hole 15. I had not played 18 holes this year so I was getting a little tired. We talked about life, sports, OSU, family, and our future... the normal stuff. He finished up with an 83 and I whacked a 124... the best this year. We all met up went out to eat and had a good time.

On Thursday we head to Ironton for more golf and shopping. We stayed with my parents till Saturday afternoon and it was much needed. We got some good eats with my dad's spaghetti and it was a good relaxing time. I went to the Ironton Country Club with my dad and he helped fix my golf game. Seems I was about a foot and a half to far from the ball. Of course this one little adjustment lead to me being nearly kicked out of the family. The one family rule about golf is you don't out drive dad (It's not a real rule, but a fun joke rule). Well on the 3rd hole his goal is to get past a mound in the fairway and the past a pine tree if it's a good day... I went beyond that pine and I hit the ball at least 220. I get a nasty look and an X over that hole. By the time we finished I had 8 Xs and two of those had circles meaning my fairway shot was good. I think on the 5th hole it took Dad 3 shots to get past my towering tee shot. Dad finished with an 98 (with two pars and a birdie) and I hit a 113 (two bogeys)! All was forgiven and I was allowed back into the family.

A trip to Ironton would not be complete without a trip to the Government housing of one Wilson. We met up for some wings at the new Buffalo Wild Wings and then head out to the ranger station for a beer and a camp fire in his back yard. If notice he's holding a poster of Smokey the Bear, we used that to start the fire. Irony at it's best!

We spent most of Saturday in the car. We went to Dayton via Columbus. We met up with King Tom, DCZ and Micah at the Cop O' Joe at the Lennox. We had a good time talking about the new Transformer movie and then that lead into Gobots, G.I. Joe, Thunder Cats, He-Man,Star Wars action figures, Which toys we had and the ones we could not have. The worst was the Star Wars rip offs of Battlestar Galactica. I liked the show, but I wanted Luke and Darth Vader not a Starbuck and a Cylon. During the middle of the geek fest The Wife left to go to Target... it was too much for her, but she knew I was having a good time.

We ended Columbus with a trip to see the newest Nephew Carson. I've seen him twice and this was the first time I was allowed to hold him. He's a cute kid and I will have to corrupt him somehow. My goal is to be that cool uncle that lives far away and lets Carson do things mom and dad refuse to let him do.

We end they day and trip with a visit to The Wife's sister's (Kim) house. On Sunday there is a cook out and more family comes and it was a good time. Then we had to head back to the Forest.

WHAT DID I GET MYSELF INTO

A side reason for Dayton was to pick up Kim's kids for a week long trip to Fried Chicken Drive. Two of the kids are 16 and the other is 10. From the picture you can see that we took the Mazda and that my have been a bad move. It was a tight trip that took 4 hours longer than it was suppose to be. We took a side trip to the New River Gorge Bridge and it was not as fun as I hoped. I'll be honest... I am not ready for pre-teens and teenagers. For the majority of the time it was fine, but once they started to annoy one another it was more than I could handle. I never had a time in my life where I looked forward to going to work till this past week. Then Kim came down and the decibel levels jumped off the charts. She is a loud person and gets louder when the kids are around, and if there is a hint of attitude from the kids it gets even louder.

The Wife and I enjoyed the visit, but we are glad to have the house to ourselves again. I actually just sat around one day and did nothing but listen to the silence.

MODERN DAY OF TV NEWS

While I looked forward to work there have been some changes I will not go into the problems, but schedules were changed and the original problem is still sitting there unchanged why three people had their lives rearranged. I've wanted to talk about this multiple times but I always delete the post before I finish.

When did people in news become so soft?

I've only been in news eight years, but it has drastically changed in that time frame. I remember times when I would have a knock down drag out yelling match with producers, reporters or anchors yet at the end of the day it was water under the bridge and you did it all over again the next day. One great example was Reigna, we would fight and argue over stories, but I loved working with her, she even tried to get me to work on The Daily Buzz once she became a producer over there. Now you can't do this and I blame the fact that news has used a business model.

What do I mean? Well instead of worrying about the produce we worry about the bottom line. In the old days before large corporations bought out most of the station in the country it was thought if your product is good then people will watch and you will make money. Now it's make money and worry about the product later. So people are being hired because they are cheap, not talented. Sure they may have enough skill, but they are not ready for that market yet. In the middle markets they are hiring kids right out of college, the problem with that is they are still too raw and don't understand the business, but they are cheap and want to make a name for themselves now instead of earning it. Then you go to the top 40 markets, they higher these kids because they will give them a decent pay raise, but truthfully it's not what a seasoned person is asking for.

Now they think they are on the move and feel like they are entitled to being treated as a big time news person. They have not had to battle there way to get the job and part of me wants to say good for you, but when you get that feeling of entitlement you loose something. The ability to take criticism, most of my complaints are about stories that are being pitched or lack of decision making. Instead of looking at it as the idea is bad it's now, "he doesn't like the idea I pitched so he is not giving me the respect I deserve. I will get him for attacking me." This line of thinking is heavily present in my current and former job. People need to toughen up and realize this.

This is why I think ratings for news is in a downward spiral and no one wants to acknowledge this and once we do, maybe we can get back to worrying about the produce not the money. If you create something people want to see then they will watch it.

GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE

HyCLoR bought a book about dressing like a gentleman and the first thing I thought of was "When do you wear and ascot?" I've always thought ascots were funny and why would you wear one. Well according to the book the only time you can were one is when you are wearing a velvet smoking jacket and embroidered slippers. Also noted in the book was the only time you can wear a velvet smoking jacket is when you entertain a black tie even. Then a side note of if you do wear a velvet smoking jacket your friends may consider you eccentric. Then I got to thinking who would I know that would wear a smoking jacket? If I did know someone I could call them out on it. Unless you are Bruce Campbell and you are in an Old Spice commercial PUT THE VELVET SMOKING JACKET AWAY!

SWEAT
It's still freaking hot out and only getting warmer. This past Thursday I was sent to Durham for a follow up to a shooting. I know Durham... shooting? NEVER! Well there were two and the police called a community walk through to see if they could get a lead. Well it followed a few officers and the next thing you know I am soaked. We wrap up and I get in a cool live truck. We run to our live location and then I have to get out and do it all over again. I do not think I have sweet so much for a story. I'm not looking forward to August.

There Goes the Neighborhood

After a long and frustration day The Wife and I go get some comfort food, or as most people call it Mexican food, we drove back a slightly different way and drove most of the two blocks of Fried Chicken Drive, I was on the phone with Mcriff and as I turned the corner I see something I hoped to never see on our block. A Confederate flag in the window of a house. I know some may say that I'm over reacting, but I've always associated this flag with a sense of racism and ignorance.

Growing up along the Ohio River I grew up with a sense that Ohio was the north and the peoples house I could see from my bedroom across the river were southerners. Maybe Wilson will correct me over this, but up until the late nineties, I very rarely saw the Confederate flag on a car from Ohio, it was always those Kentuckians. I actually new a girl and told me while she was going to The Ohio University Branch in Ironton she put a confederate flag on her car. He brother told her that Ohioans do not like to see that flag and will let you know it, and they did, she finally had to take it off her car.

I understand, to a point, that with the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and the rise of country music to the main stream that the Confederate flag has grab its coat tails and took a ride with the popularity. To me it still wreaks of racism in this country and redneckism. I've even had a reporter and I discuss my hatred for the rebel flag and he took the stance of it was a sign of southern heritage and pride. I think there are other ways to show your pride if your from the south.

I don't know, I know I'm now in the south, but still I hate to see that flag flying here. I guess I have to get use to it. I'll just stop driving that way home so I won't have to see it.

If you randomly came to this post and disagree leave a comment, I'd like to hear your reasons.

Wanderlust

The Wife and I are getting ready to find a tax specialist to do our taxes. Normally we would do them ourselves, but with the move and her change in jobs we need someone who knows the tax code and and help us out.

While sifting around receipts I realized something. I have lived in four different places in 2006. Actually I have lived in four different cities during last year.

1. An Apartment in Columbus (5 months)
   
2. The Condo in Westerville (5 months)
   
3. The temporary apartment in Raleigh (1 month)
4. Fried Chicken Drive in Wake Forest (1 month)

That's a lot of moving.

Working in TV has made me into a sort of new age Gypsy (Poor choice of words, now Wilson will want to catch me do horrible things to me like his moths), I've moved 8 times in eight years. The longest stay in one place was three years in Toledo and then my first apartment in Columbus I was there for a year and a half. Everything else has been a year or less. I know we are wanting a house, but we both realizes that dream is in the distance, so hopefully we will not be moving in 2007. I almost want to see if we can stay on Fried Chicken Drive till the end of 2008. I am sick of moving.

New Place

As I mentioned in passing in the previous post The Wife and I found a place to stay. It's a three bedroom duplex just across the county line outside Wake Forest. We are so happy with our new place, it's not that much more expensive than what we were paying in Columbus and the complex is paying for water, sewage and trash.

Everything is great, except for one thing, the name. We now live on Apple Berry Court. Did you get that? Apple Berry Court! I mean that is one of the weakest names for a street ever! I know they are taking in to account females like apples and berries and court makes it sound small, but come on! Why does it have to be that feminine? I understand that all the "normal" street names like Elm, Pine and Washington are all taken and you don't want streets running up to the 1000s but give us some other name than Apple Berry Court. I want more manly names like Fried Chicken Drive, Football Court and Ham Sandwich Street. That is why I will no longer refer to our new place as The Duplex or any other names like that. It will only be called Fried Chicken Drive, a name anyone would love to have (except those people who don't like eating meat... I'm looking at you Gostomski!) it just sound delicious!