The Big One

Here in North Texas we are subject to severe Spring storms, from heavy rains to gusty wind to hail and tornadoes. The past couple of days we have had lots and lots of rain, lots of wind and we are currently under a tornado watch. Earlier this afternoon, tornadoes hit south of us. To the north, more so than at my house, roads are flooded, cars have been swept away and they have had high water rescues.

As we sit here, luckily not in the dark, I am reminded of the huge storm and F3 tornado that hit downtown Ft Worth on March 28, 2000.

Jenny and I and our two month old baby had just moved out of our apartment in North Arlington. Our house wasn’t ready to move into yet so we were staying at a hotel on the West side of Ft Worth. We met each other at the apartment to do the final cleaning in hopes of getting our deposit back. We hadn’t seen the weather that day nor did we know that we were in danger. As we were wrapping things up the rain and wind started up. We didn’t know what to do. The electricity was already off at the apartment. I didn’t know that we were under a tornado warning so I decided that we should just head toward our hotel to the West. In separate vehicles, with me leading, we headed out.

The roads were barely passable. Rain was falling sideways due to the heavy wind. Visibility was less than 1/8 of a mile. I had the radio on listening to the news / weather channel. That’s when I first heard about the tornado! We were already on our way and my theory was, what are the odds of us getting into the tornado? The odds were in our favor. When we came to a couple of overpasses, I thought about pulling under them for safety, but the ones that we passed were always full of other cars seeking shelter. So we trudged on.

It took us over an hour to go the 12 miles or so to the hotel. On the back side of the storm we saw lots of damage to trees and roofs, etc. Once back to the safety of our room, we turned on the television and saw the aftermath of the tornado that took out at least three buildings downtown and then jumped over to South Arlington and took out a few houses and
businesses.

I still don’t know whether we went through downtown before or after the tornado went through, that’s how close we were to the action. And to this day, Jenny doesn’t let me forget about it.

And That’s What I Think.

Mexican Food And Basketball

Since I became an adult and making my own money I've found nothing more satisfying than dining out. I've eaten at restaurants all over the country and Canada from truck stops to fast food on toll roads to fine dining establishments. Where else can you try things you've never heard of much less find someone you know to make it? We've found that the best places are the little cafe's only the locals know about and go to. When visiting somewhere we regularly ask around to find such a place.

In our little town, the best Mexican food is a locally owned place called Cha Cha's. This is a quaint little restaurant that always has a full parking lot. The prices are decent and the food is delicious. Unlike the cookie-cutter chain Mexican restaurants, Cha Cha's food taste like it was prepared with loving care. We enjoy the fresh made tortillas and beef fajitas and it's hard to pass up $2 strawberry daiquiris. The staff treats you like family and they are kid friendly, which is a big plus in our book.

Since 2005, Ft. Worth has had a minor league basketball team called the Ft. Worth Flyers. They are in the development league aka D-League and are the farm team for the Charlotte bobcats, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Dallas Mavericks. This past Saturday was our first time to see them play. Admittedly, I have never been a basketball fan, but recently I prepared a list of Kalma-tivities of things for us to do on weekends and I decided to throw that in there. I have to say, we all had a really good time. Even the kids paid attention for the whole game. Lacye saw the similarities to soccer right away, which peaked her interest.

Check back for our weekend updates as we check off our list of Kalma-tivities.

And That's What We Did.

TV Show Updates

AMERICAN IDOL
Sanjaya Lives! If you recall my last post about American Idol, Sanjaya is staying on the show, possibly because of VFTW and The Howard Stern Show. Although we are not watching Idol this year, we did help save Sanjaya by voting over 400 times last week. We forgot to vote yesterday, however, it wasn't needed as Sanjaya was not in the bottom three for the second week in a row! If we can keep this up, Sanjaya will be your next American Idol . . . How funny would that be?!?

Here's a parody of Sanjaya ~
Sanjaya Anthem


LOST
This is by far the fastest hour on television! Although it only ranked in at number 17 last week with a 13 share, it's still my favorite show. I honestly don't know why LOST has fallen out of favor with the throngs on people that made it a hit. Maybe because of the later time or the fact that it disappeared for several weeks during the winter. If you liked the show before, how can you not like it now? It's still just as good. The action is still there as is the mystery. Plus Evangeline Lilly who plays Kate Austen is H-O-T !



And That's What I Think.

St. Patrick's Day

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Many of you will be wearing green, thinking of four leaf clovers, maybe have a green beer. You might be looking for gold at the end of the rainbow.

For me, St. Patrick's Day brings to mind windmills. Not the kind used by my ancestors in Holland, not exactly. No, not the kind used to produce energy or pump water. Just your run of the mill 8-foot decorative garden variety windmill.

Three years ago today, March 17, 2004, I was assaulted by my windmill. After assembling the the base and the blade/tail parts of the windmill, I now needed to put them together. Because the windmill stood 8 feet, I had it next to my porch and was standing on the steps. I should also mention that it was a windy day and that the kids were in school and my wife was at work.

Now, I slipped the top portion into the bottom when I noticed that I needed to tighten the collar that goes around the top of the base. As I'm tightening the collar a huge gust of wind blew the tail around and at the same time started the blades rotating. It hit me with enough force to knock me down off my perch.

My ear ringing, I got up with a few choice words. I looked down to see a couple of drops of blood on the ground. Great, the thing cut me. I reached up to my ear and brought my hand back with lots of blood on it. This is not good. I run into the house, through the kitchen to grab a paper towel and hold it to my head as I head for the bathroom to examine my catastrophe.

Looking into the mirror, I pull away the blood soaked paper towel and watch as part of my ear pulls away with the paper towel a little more than it should. Quick assessment, my ear is in bad shape and I need to get to a hospital.

I wet down a wash cloth, grab my keys and head out. My reasoning is that I can drive to the hospital faster than an ambulance can get to me, and I AM FREAKED OUT! On the way I call my wife to tell her I'm driving to the emergency room expecting her to accuse me of crying wolf since I am a bit of a prankster. She believes me and says she'll meet me there.

I get to the hospital with a wash cloth to my head and they look at me like I'm wasting their time. However, when I pull the wash cloth away and they get a look at my ear, they spring into action. The bleeding has mostly stopped, but the ear had a bit of a mangled look to it I'm sure. They check my vitals and state concern that my blood pressure is so high. I tell them that I am freaked out and afraid that I'm going to loose my ear. They assure me that I will be able to keep the ear and get me to calm down.

The rest of the visit was routine other than repeatedly confirming to everyone that I was not working on a large water pumping windmill, but a small decorative one that just got away from me.

The ER doctor was able to sew my ear up and it looks pretty normal other than a couple of extra lines or folds from the scars.

Once you reach a certain age, you feel like you have things in your life under control. Although I was accident prone as a child, I hadn't hurt myself in a very long time. This just goes to show you that anything can happen at any time.

And That's What I Know!

Down The Road

The "Left Lane is For Passing Only!" Some people don't realize that this is the same thing as "Keep Right Except To Pass."

I drive for a living and it has gotten increasingly worse lately with the people that park themselves in the left lane. What are they doing there? The right lane is empty and they are going below the speed limit. Get out of the way! Why are you holding me up? Do they think those signs are "No Smoking" signs and since they don't smoke, it doesn't apply to them? I can't understand their problem, by hogging the left lane they are forcing everyone to pass them on the right. They are absolutely clueless.

Then you have the idiots in the right lane that are going slow, which is fine, but when you move to the left lane to pass them, they speed up like it's a race. Look, buddy, you're not going to the same place as me so there's no way you can beat me there. Just drive at your pace and let me go about my business. Ten minutes later, there they are going slower than you, so you go to make the pass and guess what? Yep, they speed up again.

Because I drive so much, I've learned to appreciate my cruise control. When a vehicle is entering the highway it is his job to merge with ME, not the other way around. Now I will move over if the left lane is clear, usually, but if they can't give me the courtesy of a turn signal, I may not move.

People wonder why there's road rage. If these idiots out there would learn the rules of the road and learn to share the road with others and obey the law (I know thats a lot to ask), they wouldn't make other drivers so angry.

This has been "Down The Road" with John

And That's What I Think.

TMNT

TMNT aka Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is trying to make a come back. Last seen 13 years ago, you have to ask, "Is this really necessary?"

The Turtles made their debut in comic books in 1984. They began an animated series in 1987. With the help of merchandising in 1990 they were catapulted into pop culture history. There have been three previous feature films, 1990, 1991 and 1993.

I was never a Turtles fan. After all, they are human size turtles that talk AND are ninjas! Not to mention that they all have Italian names. Talk about a hodge podge idea. From what I learned in school, turtles are slow movers. You should be able to kick one of these ninja turtles and walk away and they wouldn't catch you for a number of years. Maybe that's why it has been 13 years since we've heard from them.

Actually, my thought is that someone new bought the franchise and they are trying to make their ship come in by revitalizing TMNT. I don't think it will work, though. I searched for a review of TMNT and couldn't find anything. Usually when a film is not given to critics to be reviewed, it's because they know it's crap. I'm just surprised this one didn't go straight to video. I don't think that this film will do very well, although a lot of it depends on what else is opening against it. If it were the only movie opening, it would make a few million just because people are bored and will pay to see anything.

The Turtles are washed up. People that were into them in the late eighties and early nineties should realize this and move on.

And That's What I Think.

The Power Of The People

I'm not watching American Idol this season. I watched the bad auditions, but none of the people that made it through really caught my attention. From what I hear now, this season is not very good anyway. This season's contestants just aren't up to par with the previous seasons.

There is one contestant on there named Sanjaya Malakar. He is evidently a terrible singer. The judges are running out of bad things to say to him and even he doesn't know why he hasn't been voted off, yet. The original theory I heard was that he is Indian and since all the voting calls go through India, his votes were being rigged.

The new theory and the one I think is right, is VFTW.

Vote For The Worst is a websight designed to rally people together to literally vote for the worst contestant. They do this to create controversy and show the power people have when rallied together.

Don't think it would work? They have proven themselves on two other occasions. Last year's American Idol winner Taylor Hicks was NOT the best singer out of him and Katharine McPhee. Lastly, look who's currently in the oval office!
I rest my case.

Never underestimate what you can do when you set your mind to it. What VFTW is doing for American Idol is funny, what they did to the American people is not.

And That's What I Think!

Updates

Well, yesterday was Texas' Independence Day. I'm disappointed that there was no fan fare at all. The only mention of it that I saw was an opinion piece in the newspaper.

In other news, I renewed my drivers license yesterday. Why does it seems like all the people at the DMV are lower class individuals? Where do the middle class, upper middle class and wealthy go to renew their licenses? Am I missing something here? It's just so uncomfortable being around that sort. I'm not trying to be judgmental, although I'm sure it must be coming off that way. The ladies at the check-in desk were very DMV-like, however the guy that actually waited on me and took my new picture, etc was very friendly. All in all, I was out in about 45 minutes and don't have to go back for 5 years, Yea!

For those out there that are into sports, but not into Nascar, I joined MLB fantasy baseball last week. It's free to play. My team's draft was this past Tuesday. I'm not thrilled with all the players I ended up with. It looks a lot more involved than the Nascar fantasy leagues that I'm in, but we'll see.

And That's What I Think.