Entry 51: 31 March 2003, 7:55pm
The construction at I-44 & US-169 is finished,
with the Mingo Valley Expressway now expanded to six lanes up to 11th
Street. (Can't go on to I-244 until the 11th St and Admiral bridges are
rebuilt.) The construction sign at left, advising people travelling eastbound
on I-44 to detour using the B.A., is still up though.
It looks like it may be staying up
permanently! Click
on the sign & you'll see another picture showing why: that particular
exit no longer exists. The on-ramp to 169 was far too close to 169's
off-ramp to 21st Street, so they took it out. A brand-new exit on eastbound
I-44 was built to 21st, and from it you can go east about a mile to get
to southbound 169.
Or you can do what I did today: exit onto
northbound 169,
then proceed to take the next two segments of the cloverleaf, and you'll
be going southbound.
Back in mid-January (Entry
39) I mentioned a report from one of the TV stations about the new
extension of the Gilcrease Expressway. Y'know, the one they've spent
two years building, just to extend the road an extra half-mile. That
report said the new section should be ready to open "by March". As I'm
typing this, they've got about four hours left.
Don't think they're gonna make it.
Trouble is, I'm not sure why. I haven't seen the Lewis end,
so I don't know if that section is ready, but everything at the US 75
end looks ready to be opened. The only thing missing are the gantrys
with the new Big Green Signs. (And don't tell me that is all they're
waiting for. The Keystone Expressway was open for traffic a good six
months before there were any signs on it!)
Meanwhile, we still have to drop down to 55mph in a construction
zone that has seen absolutely no construction for at least two months.
Come to think of it, maybe it's the city's idea to keep the construction
zone up. I've seen police cars staked out there watching for speeders
at four in the morning. Shore up some lost city income
there.
We had just gotton the
satellite receiver working again on our projection-tv at work (no, we're
not slackers: the subscription is limited to news and weather channels).
TV used to be on CNN all the time, but they made the horrendous mistake of
having Connie Chung on the air when the war began (a mistake that has been
permanently corrected), so, over my request to switch to MSNBC, we went over
to Fox News. When we got the new receiver working (the old one was fried,
mainly because it had been on continuously for six years), I tried again
to get them to go to MSNBC, because they had Peter Arnett, who was also in
Iraq for Gulf War I. Got overruled again, still on Fox News.
Then Arnett goes and gives that stupid interview in Iraqi TV
(story
link). Don't blame the networks one bit for firing him. I'm still
gonna keep recommending MSNBC however, because just tonight they've
brought back Keith Olbermann. His first show just ended a few minutes
ago, and I am duly impressed. I've seen some war-related stories that
I haven't seen any other network touch. Including a section devoted solely
to how other countries are reporting the war. When I have no alternate
entertainment programming scheduled I'm gonna be watching Keith each night.
And not watching Fox News, except when I'm forced to at work.
Bill O'Reilly seems to do nothing but have on guests that oppose his
views just so he can chastise them (I can't recall the last time he had
a guest who completely agreed with him). I have been
against Shepard Smith since the presidential election fiasco coverage
in Florida, where he was arrested for hitting a woman with his car so he
could get her parking space (story
link), then getting off scot-free becase he's a national public
figure, and the woman he hit isn't. (Here's a link to his mug shot.)
And then, of course, there's Geraldo, who is supposedly
being kicked out of Iraq for jeopardizing American troops by drawing
a map in the sand on international television, showing the enemy where
those particular American troops were at that moment and which way they
were going. If even one American soldier is injured based on that information,
Geraldo should be arrested immediately and tried for war crimes, just
as if he were an Iraqi soldier.
In fact, let's do that anyway. Just to get him off the air
for good.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe
one of the things a country has to do to become a member of the United
Nations is to follow the rules set forth in the Geneva Convention.
Iraq has broken those rules by showing American Prisoners of war on
national television. They continue to violate the Geneva Convention
by refusing to allow Red Cross/Red Crescent personnel to visit said
POWs.
Seems to me that Iraq has therefore forfeited its membership
in the United Nations. They shouldn't be allowed to speak to any other
country at the U.N., and they definitely shouldn't be allowed to speak
to the Security Council.
I think that's about all for now. Just
a reminder: this is my page, and all viewpoints represented are mine,
although I may give you a link to a story once in a while just to show
how idiotic it is. More will undoubetdly be said later, but the nutshell
for now: don't visit France, but go ahead & eat french fries (after
all, they're really from Belgium); deport Michael Moore; support the
troops, because this time we've gotta finish the job; but do not, under
any circumstances, re-elect Bush.
I reiterate: if you don't like anything I've said, get your
own web site.
Entry 52: 13 April 2003, 8:47pm
No, I haven't given up on this site. Both of my computers have
just been so screwed up that I haven't had the opportunity till now to
do an update. And even this one will be just a quick one.
New computer keep freezing up on me. I've had four different versions
of Windows on the machine (98SE, ME, 2000 & XP), and it locks up
each time, usually within ten minutes of boot-up. Completely wiping the
hard drive didn't help (machine even froze during the OS
installation
process!). Replacing the memory didn't work, either.
So that either leaves the motherboard and processor or the hard drive
itself. Mailing it back to the internet company I got it from to see if
they've got any ideas. (And I've learned my lesson from this: even if
it costs a couple of hundred more, I realize now it's better to buy locally,
preferably from people you know and trust.)
In the meantime I had to pull the old machine back out of the
bedroom. Problem with it is that since it was last in the den the C:
partition got severly corrupted. The Windows OS on it was extermely screwed
up, so that partition got wiped as well, and a lesser OS reinstalled.
The old Win2000 is gone, replaced with ME (for some reason, possibly the
corruption, I couldn't get it to upgrade to XP). Still not working as
well as it used to, but at least I've got it stabilized enough to do
this entry. So far the only time this machine freezes is whenever I try
to go to a particular eBay page.
Hoping to get back out and get some new highway photos this coming
Friday (last weekend's attempt was cancelled due to my numerous computer
problems).
K, one last thing this go-round, a
link to a site
featuring the wit and witticisms of the (I'm assuming former) Iraqi Information
Minister. There's a part of me that's actually hoping he can get away.
He provided the one thing this war desperately needed: comic relief!
Entry 53: 26 April 2003, 7:25pm
OK, here's where we stand: the new computer has been sent back
to the company that made it, with strong hopes that they can figure out
what's wrong with it. Still using the old computer, but a thorough Scandisk
revealed that the hard drive had gotten severely corrupted, to the point
that the computer would run Scandisk on
every reboot, not just when
the machine had been shut off abnormally.
To get around that problem, I bought a new hard drive for the old
computer. And as it happened, the very brand, speed, and storage size
that I was intending to get just happened to be almost half off after rebates.
For once timing was on my side. Got ME running on the machine. Had intended
to upgrade to 2000, but for some reason the 2000 installation program
can't find the ME OS, so it keeps claiming that there is no version of
Windows running on the computer, despite the obvious fact that some version
of Windows has to be running just to be able to
get that error message.
Dunno if it's the apparently-incomplete ME install or if the corruption
from the other hard drive made its way to other components on the machine,
but I'm still having a few problems with this old unit. Basically, any
attempt to multitask starts causing graphic problems, to the point that
a reboot is required. Even went to the expense of doubling the RAM on this
unit to 512mb, but the problems persist, so it's not lack of memory. Don't
really want to invest much more in repairing this unit, however, for the
simple fact that it's supposed to be the old computer. Once the new computer
comes back and is up & running like it's supposed to be, this one is
going back into the bedroom, with the only planned use to be for weather bulletins
that come in while I'm asleep, and a duplicate running of my favorite screen
saver (those who know me really well know which screen saver I'm talking
about).
These graphic problems are also what's keeping me from thoroughly
updating my road pages (perfect example: I got as far as the word 'my'
in this paragraph when the graphics got so screwed up I had to reboot again).
I have been back out on the road the past two Fridays and got pics of several
more state highways, as well as found three that no longer exist. Yesterday's
route took me, in a rather indirect way, from Shawnee to Ada, to Pauls
Valley, to Chickasha, to El Reno, then back home, a longer outer version
of the path I had taken the previous Friday. Although I have none of the
pages up yet (heck, I haven't even made any of the pages yet), I now have
pictures of every state highway between here and Chickasha.
Quick sidebar: ran across
this
screen saver by accident. The primary feature is a spinning earth, with
any Pacific and Atlantic hurricanes added onto the globe in their current
positions. Of course, it's still a little too early for tropical systems
to form (we did have the 'A' storm in the Atlantic show up earlier this
week, but that was considered a fluke), so I'm not sure how that part of
the feature will work. Can't wait to find out.
As it's now obvious to me that I can't even get through one of these
rants without having computer problems, updates to this page will still
not be as common as they used to. Besides, I'm quite frankly tired of talking
about Iraq, the French, and American Airlines. Do enough of that at work.
Entry 54: 3 May 2003, 8:30am
The new computer showed up on my doorstep Thursday night. Unfortunately
I wasn't aware of it until I was preparing to leave for my weekly roadtrip
Friday morning. I've taken it out of the box but as of yet haven't hooked
it up to see if it's any better (no note inside to tell me what they
did). They may also want to chastise a certain UPS driver: as I said,
I was not aware the package had arrived until the next morning, despite
the fact the label on the top of the box clearly states "Signature Required".
Yesterday was, without a doubt, the longest single-day solo roadtrip
that I have EVER taken: 854 miles from driveway to driveway! And it was
well worth it. I now have the endpoint of every state highway that crosses
into Arkansas (yesterday was everything south of Poteau), plus I also
got every endpoint south and east of Antlers. Just kept going until the
sun wouldn't let me go any further (as the western terminus pic of OK-109
will attest).
Once the sun went down, the second part of my mission began: I swung
into Denison, TX to update my lottery picks. Unfortunately, the Texas
Lotto is changing its format in a little over a week (adding a Powerball-type
number to the mix), so I could only update up to that point. Gonna have
to go back down there in two weeks and update it all over again.
No, wait. In two weeks I have to go back to Missouri and update those.
Oh, sheesh! Decisions, desicions.
Here's how yesterday's timetable went: left the house around 8:45am;
got to my first endpoint just south of Poteau a little after 11 (that's
right, over two hours just to get to the first pic, that's how much I've
done); in a rare case of perfect timing, the sun finally broke free from
the clouds less than ten minutes before I got on scenic Talimena Drive,
a little after noon; left Arkansas for the last time (OK-87, within the
Red River floodplain) around 5:30pm; last pic of the day, OK-109 in Boswell,
at 8:20pm; reached Denison, TX, and got my lottery tickets @ 9:30pm;
then headed back home, reaching my driveway at 12:30 in the morning. Whew!
I may actually skip next week's roadtrip and concentrate instead
on putting up the pages for the ones I've already done. After all, there
are 39 state highways from the past three weeks whose web pages I have
to either update or create, and I haven't started on any of them yet. Was
going to do a few today, but since the computer's returned I need to figure
out if it's working properly.
I am gonna do one thing to the road site today: add a "Picture of
the Week" feature: bunch of the other road websites are doing it, including
my in-state counterpart over at OKRoads. Decided to start it this week because
I have a picture that directly relates to the May 3, 1999 tornado, and
since today is the anniversary of that it seemed like the perfect time.
In a sidebar, I'm kinda wondering how much the people who make the
state government's official road map actually talk to anyone who travel
these roads. Just in the past eight days I've found three state highways
that appear on the brand-new 2003-2004 map that apparently no longer exist
(all actual signage has been removed from the roads), as well as one other
those actual terminus point is some fifteen miles away from where the map
says it is. I guess the liaison between the Transportation Department and
the Cartography Department got laid off.
Entry 55: 8 May 2003, 10:09pm
New computer has been up & running fine since Saturday. Interestingly,
it arrived not only without an OS (which I was kinda expecting, as that's
how it was sent to me the first time), but the hard drive had not even
been partitioned. Also, no note as to what, if anything, was done to the
unit.
Guess I shouldn't complain much, though. It
is working. Even
got Windows XP installed back on it.
Took a closer look at the new format
for the Texas Lottery, and I've decided not to play it anymore. Not only
are they making it harder to win by adding their version of a Powerball,
it's now harder to win than Powerball. And I mean win
anything!
In the Powerball lottery, all you have to do is match the Powerball
number and you've won three bucks. In the new Texas version, just to win
the three-dollar prize you have to match not only their Blue Bonus Ball
(which if I remember correctly is what they're calling their powerball),
but one regular number as well. Definitely not worth it. All lottery trips
from here on in will be to the Joplin area.
After a week of tornadoes
and severe storms occuring all around the area, I have finally decided
I'm sick and tired of hearing the term "dry line". I appreciate the Powers
That Be sparing the immediate Tulsa area from the worst of these systems,
but c'mon. At least let us have the rain! Lots of areas around us
have had as much as half a foot of rain so far this month. The airport has
had a stinking trace!
(Which brings up another unanswered question: why are Tulsa's official
weather statistics recorded at the airport. Why should anybody care? I
mean, who lives at the airport?
The geographical center of the city needs to be pinned down, and all
of Tulsa's official records need to be measured from that point.)
Speaking of the Powers That Be (what God is referred to on the series
Angel, which had it's best season finale
yet last night, leaving us fans crossing our fingers that it gets renewed
next season), what have they got against the town of Moore? Second tornado
in almost exactly four years, some houses that had been rebuilt after the
first one getting hit again. At least this time there appear to have been
no deaths.
And the roadgeek world was not spared from this evening's tornado.
Eric Stuve, my state counterpart over at OKRoads.com, was directly affected.
His home is OK and so is he, but the official OKRoadmobile now has a shattered
window on the driver's side, and his rear window is completely gone.
As is his place of business. The Wendy's in Moore is no...more (sorry,
just realized that was a pun, and not a good one at that). Hope all of
Eric's friends are alright, and here's to the people of Moore, and here's
hoping you never have to go through this hell again.
Been flipping back-and-forth all night
between the three main TV stations in town, watching their weather coverage.
Channel 6 was far-and-away the best, primarily owing to the fact that they
have a true sister-station (owned by the same people) in OKC, so they
were able to show the OKC-9 coverage live, while the other stations were
stuck with radar and cellular calls.
In fact, the only two complaints I had about KOTV's coverage: the
guy with the handheld camera in the Weathercenter acting like he's trying
to do an "Up Close and Personal" documentary. Enough with that guy already!
Two, and this is admittedly nitpicking: all night long they were referring
to Channel 9's newschopper as "Sky
6". Please, it's Sky 9
if it's anything.
They even prepared for the coverage ahead of time, announcing during
the 5:00 newscast that any of their prime-time programs, if they get pre-empted
due to weather coverage (which the first two programs did), would be aired
during the overnight hours, so people could set their VCR's. Very classy.
Please take a large note here that Channel 2 neglected to do likewise to
their highest-rated program, Friends, which aired
their penultimate show of the season tonight, which I will now not be
able to see until the show is rerun in early September. (Fortunately the
worst of the weather left the area just in time for Will & Grace
to still be seen.)
As far as the weather coverage on the other two stations: Channel
8 has the better radar, but I usually only pay attention to them when
my house might be directly affected, because it means that they are as well,
since I live at the bottom of the hill from the KTUL studios.
The less said about Channel 2's coverage, the better. Most of the
time the so-called Chief Meteorologist seemed to care more about how good
a job his co-workers and the spotters in the field were doing than about
the fact that people watching could be in danger. Management made a serious,
serious mistake when they released the previous chief meteorologist and
hired this guy.
In fact, the only thing KJRH has going for it is two female meteorologists,
very much a rarity for any local TV station anywhere in the country. Nicole
Mitchell is the hottest woman on any of the local news broadcasts, and
Julie Chin is so perky she makes Katie Couric look glum. I'll watch if they're
on, no hesitation. Mike Anderson is pretty good, too. But not El Chiefo.
The sooner they get rid of him the better.
