Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What a return to TV

OK, so I went 61 1/2 hours with no TV. I think the last time I had a stretch like that was Hurricane Alicia in 1983. I really can't think of another stretch of nothing. Not even a glance at a TV in passing.

Saturday afternoon I was able to get the XM radio going on battery power and listen to about three quarters of the Penn State game. Sunday night I caught the last inning of Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter on XM as well.

I was getting phone calls and text messages throughout the weekend giving me scores and updating me on my fantasy teams, but access was definitely limited.

So my first thing to watch was the Monday Night game with the Cowboys and Eagles. After a little pregame show it felt good to be watching sports again. This game didn't disappoint. I think I would have been excited with any Cowboy victory, but that game was something else.

The people we are staying with in Austin didn't really know what to expect. Meagan has been with me for Cowboy and Penn State games before, but her boyfriend Costa has only met me a handful of times and never when a game of any importance was on TV.

So right out of the gate I was up screaming. TO's long touchdown and Felix Jones' kickoff return for a touchdown. He also saw the other side of me when the Eagles took the lead in the second quarter. I was pissed and it showed. He ended up leaving the room for a while and I am not really sure why.

Everyone has to go to work in the morning and went to bed in the third quarter, so I had to do one of the hardest things imaginable, watch the game in near silence. I use near very loosely, because I did have some minor outbursts. Fortunately the Cowboys pulled it off and I had a very enjoyable return to TV.

Just saw the Fresno State/Wisconsin game from Saturday night is on ESPN2. I really have no idea what happens in this one, so I think I will watch a little while.

It is good to have you back old friend.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Post Ike

It feels good to just have air right now. I went 48 hours without TV but we have escaped to Austin so I have the Cowboys on a 48" TV with HD. There is no telling how long we are going to be without power.

Here is some video of the storm as it passed over my house. We caught the left edge of the eye while the storm was a Cat 1. The first clip is a little before sunrise around 6:30 a.m. We lost power about 4:30 and the winds really started getting bad about 5 a.m.



This next clip is about 7 in the morning. The only thing that saved the fence was the wind was blowing with it and not against it. The plank that is missing was gone early in the storm.


This last video is about 8 a.m.

After driving through the neighborhood the next day we really got lucky. There were at least two tornadoes that touched down within about half a mile from our house. As we drove around there were several houses with significant damage and there were at least 10 cars damaged, and we only drove though less than a quarter of the neighborhood.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Hurricane Ike

Last Saturday was strange. I was actually home. My Saturdays are usually spent at Bowers Stadium getting ready for a Kats game. If I'm on the road it is a mix of hotels, buses and other stadiums.

I can usually grab a score here and there and maybe catch a highlight here and there. With the 11 a.m. kicks usually I can squeeze in the the first half, and if a press box has a TV I might catch a few moments of a game or two. Then I am relegated to the late-night Pac-10 game or maybe a Tivoed Penn State game.

Very rarely do I have a Saturday of just sitting around the living room watching football.

So even while I was on the couch watching the Nittany Lions, something felt weird, like there was something else I was supposed to be doing. I enjoyed the day, but there was just a different fell about it.

Now all of a sudden I find myself with a second consecutive Saturday off. I was supposed to be getting ready for Prairie View A&M, and now I am getting ready for Ike. Going into this morning, the option was still open to playing this weekend. Saturday looked out, but we thought the game might get moved to Friday or Sunday.

But when the university closed for Friday that was out and when Prairie View called and said they couldn't get a bus to bring them to Huntsville, Sunday was out as well.

So here I am again, looking over the TV listings for Saturday wondering if I am going to get my Nittany Lions again. I actually had it planned right if Ike would have just stayed on course and gone to Corpus. With a 6 p.m. kickoff for the Bearkats and a 2:30 start for Penn State I was going to get to work and set up the video equipment early and just watch the game in my office on ESPN360.

Now I don't know what I am going to do. I don't have 360 at my house so that option is out. The game is an ABC regional game so there is a glimmer of hope. With the Texas/Arkansas game postponed, that opens up the schedule for the 2:30 time-slot. I will just have to wait and see which game they decide to show.

Of course if I lose power on Saturday, none of that really matters.