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When the clouds get black overhead in one part of Central Arkansas, it can cause a scare, if not panic, over the rest of the area.
It’s that way here Monday afternoon. My wife, Nancy, who works for a group of oncology doctors next to Baptist Health Medical Center in Little Rock, called to tell me that we needed to turn on the Weather Channel on our newsroom televisions because the dark clouds had arrived in west Little Rock. She said the wall of windows that she and her co-workers face on the north side of their building was rattling from the winds that had picked up since the building storm moved toward them.
Some of us in our offices downtown ran to the front windows. Overhead, the sky was overcast but not particularly disturbing. Looking west, though, we saw a thick layer of gray storm clouds with a blanket along the horizon that were even darker.
Nancy also instructed me to call my parents and tell them to prepare for a storm. My mother has been known to watch St. Louis Cardinals baseball games on television with storms bearing down on them in the Dixon Road area south of Little Rock until she is dragged into the hallway.
It was no different this time. After our session of look-see, I called Mom and told her that Nancy’s office was surrounded by black clouds and that she and Dad should prepare to take cover. She told me that the sun was out and that Dad was outside checking on the garden. I told her what Nancy said and that she should tell Dad to come in. (My folks listen to Nancy’s suggestions much more willingly than they do mine.)
“I’ll tell him,” she said, “but I don’t know if he’ll do it.”
Dad soon will be 75 and Mom is 73, so I guess they can do what they want when it comes to coming in out of the rain, but that means we’ll worry about it until we hear from them after the storm has passed.
I realize that storms sometimes just hit part of an area and I don’t get particularly nervous. However, my wife does — she says it’s our Lhasa apso, Daisy, that she’s concerned about, but it’s not just the dog — so that adds a bit of urgency to our life when the ridiculously large weather maps pop onto our television screens.
Better to be safe rather than sorry, I guess. And I understand the concern.
I moved to Vernon, Texas, and then to Wichita Falls, Texas, in the early 1980s. Each city had been struck by a killer tornado in 1979. Forty-six died in Wichita Falls and 13 fatalities were suffered in Vernon. At those newspapers, we went into crisis mode any time the sky got dark. An excellent weather-spotting system developed from that tornado and its aftermath and that’s what our readers wanted to know any time a threat of storms developed — what was going to happen with the weather.
My complaints will continue about television stations rationalizing their purchase of expensive computer programs for their meteorologists by breaking into my ballgames anytime a storm reaches the edge of the state map. I don’t want to know about a rainy night in Georgia or even Fort Smith or Memphis. But I do get why some people do.
I’m a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I always have been.
But having spent most of the last 20 years of the past century in Texas, I reached the point of making the Texas Rangers my “American League team.”
Sometimes I record the Rangers game to watch late at night after I watch the Cardinals game. Yes, I’ve enjoyed seeing Benton and the U of A’s Cliff Lee pitch since his trade from the Seattle Mariners 10 days ago. But the part I really enjoy is seeing Elvis Andrus play shortstop for the Rangers.
I first noticed him at Arkansas Travelers games when Andrus came through North Little Rock playing for the Rangers’ double-A affiliate, the Frisco RoughRiders, at Dickey-Stephens Park in 2008.
He was signed by the Atlanta Braves in 2005, but was one of five minor-league players sent to the Rangers for first baseman Mark Texiera and pitcher Ron Mahay on the major-league trade deadline July 31, 2007.
Andrus is not the finished product yet, but he is fearless and makes spectacular defensive plays that some players would not consider attempting. He continues to improve each year.
His first year in the minors, 2005, he posted a fielding average in the .920s, and gradually improved into the .940s by the time he played for Frisco. He had a .968 fielding percentage his rookie year with Texas in 2009, and so far this year is fielding at a .974 clip. And, he has hit a respectable .270 or so at the plate, stole 33 bases last year and has 24 to date this year.
The native of Maracay, Aragua, Venezuela, will not be 22 years old until Aug. 26.
I was talking on a Bluetooth phone device as I walked from my car to a Little Rock grocery store at lunchtime Thursday.
A man who was quite upset was ranting just outside the entrance. As I moved closer to the door, I said to my friend, “Something’s going on.” But I decided the man was talking loudly to no one in particular. Because he was so loud, I was concentrating on what my friend had to say, rather than the diatribe of the man without a soapbox.
My friend asked me as I passed the guy, “Do you need to get off the phone? Are you in danger?”
I laughed and said, “No, I don’t think so.” I stopped inside the store to try to listen to what he had to say. All I caught was: ” … and as soon as I finish my cigarette, I’m going in there and let ’em know about it, too!”
I laughed out loud as I realized that he was mad about something that someone inside the store, but he wasn’t going to break the law against smoking inside the building to go in and resolve it.
By the time I waited in line, bought my chicken box lunch at the deli counter and went back outside, the Great Orator had left the premises.
Some store employees were taking a smoke break where he had been standing. They were trying to decide if the man was drunk or crazy.
But they may have been jumping to conclusions. He simply may have been upset. After he had finished his cigarette, he may have felt better and gone home. Sometimes, it helps just to get it off your chest.
Kenny Guinn, the former governor of Nevada, died Thursday after a fall from the roof of his Las Vegas, Nev. He was 73.
Dema, his wife of 54 years, found him on the ground unconscious about 10:30 a.m. PDT Thursday. He was declared dead at a Las Vegas hospital just after 11 a.m.
Guinn was born in Aug. 24, 1936, in Garland, Ark., in Miller County. But his family moved to California when he was a child, eventually winding up in Exeter in the San Joaquin Valley.
He moved to Las Vegas for a teaching job and wound up as the Clark County superintendent of schools.
A moderate Republican noted for bringing people from both parties together, Guinn was governor from 1999 to 2007.
We received reports that a man robbed the US Bank branch at Park Plaza in Little Rock just after noon Tuesday. A suspect was chased by up to 11 Little Rock police and Arkansas State Police cars on Interstate 30 into North Little Rock.
North Little Rock police set up a road block on Riverfront Drive, so the suspect turned around and headed back toward Little Rock. Witnesses at NLR’s US Bank Building at Riverfront Plaza said the man stopped the pickup on the Maple Street bridge between Little Rock and NLR and jumped off.
The witnesses said the man landed on his back, but a police spokesman said he hit the water head first. The man was face down, officers said, when Pulaski County Sheriff’s Water Patrol officers recovered the body just after 1 p.m. Reportedly, he was dead from hitting the water, likely with a broken neck.
Check our website at pulaskinews.net soon for more details.
I read a blog that asked if Mel Gibson’s latest tirade directed at his girlfriend and filled with expletives and racial slurs would keep people from going to see his movies. Good question.
It is easy to say that I’m fed up with his behavior and his rants about different ethnicities. I can say that I have no plans to go see a Mel Gibson movie and help him make more money.
But if he happens to be in a movie that also features someone whose work I respect, I might go see it.
For instance, he is reportedly soon to be in a movie produced by Jodie Foster. Even if I am boycotting Mel Gibson, I happen to be a big fan of Jodie Foster. So, who knows. I’ll have to decide when I know more about that project.
With Arkansas temperatures in the 90s and 100s, and the heat index 10 or 12 degrees above that, now is the time to be smart about staying cool.
That could mean anything from thinking cool thoughts and daydreaming of icebergs to planning evening meals that are light, cool and don’t require time in the kitchen with the oven going.
Salads, garden or the fruit variety, make a lot of sense at this time of the year. My doctor that has ordered me to lose weight says the evening meal should be the lightest of the day, regardless of what the calendar indicates.
The fruit tree (and bush or plant) is a good way to go with desserts, too. True, it’s hard to beat ice cream when the thermometer is in triple digits, but strawberries and tomatoes are great, too. Even if you go the frozen route, yogurt can help keep some of the pounds off.
As far as around the house, the trick is staying cool without having heart-attack-inducing utility bills. Air-conditioning may be the life saver, but it helps to keep the cool air in by making sure your doors and windows are well-sealed and that ceiling fans and box fans help move the air around.
Blocking the sunlight coming into the house has its advantages, and can keep the temperatures down considerably. Dress light — in fabric and color. Anything helps when the family’s combined ages don’t add up to the reading on the digital thermometer.
If you go out for exercise, be prepared — dress in light clothes and have water or hydration drinks available at all times. The sporting goods stores have some nifty bottles and carriers for your liquid refreshments.
One more thing … if you have pets, keep them cool. If their indoor animals, keep them inside, and if they stay outdoors, keep them cool and give them a place they can cool off while you’re away. Make sure they have access to water.
Good luck and stay cool out there.
My goodness I’m glad I didn’t threaten to hold my breath until the National League won the Major League Baseball All-Star Game again because 1996 was a long time ago and my face would be quite red by now.
Yes, the Nationals defeated the Americans 3-1 Tuesday night in Anaheim, Calif., thanks to the bases-clearing double by the Atlanta Braves’ Brian McCann. I wasn’t happy when Phillies and National League manager Charlie Manuel pinch-hit McCann for Yadier Molina after only one at-bat by the Cardinals’ catcher (in which he produced a single), but it sure worked out later.
I liked it when sports writers used to call the teams representing the respective leagues the Nationals and the Americans. I don’t know why they quit, though I can probably blame it on the late Bowie Kuhn, whom I thought was the worst commissioner possible until Bud Selig showed me just how bad he could be — Exhibit A: the 2002 All-Star Game, which ended 2-2 after Selig let managers Joe Torre and Bob Brenly whine until he bought their excuse about not having any pitchers left and declared the game a 2-2 tie after 11 innings. He should have acted like a commissioner and said, “Boo hoo, boys. You should have thought about that instead of trying to win a popularity contest by playing everyone on your bench so early.” But I digress … I don’t suppose the powers-that-be would “allow” the team names of Nationals and Americans now because the Washington team nickname is Nationals.
Also, imagine my surprise when Marlon Byrd, the only Chicago Cubs player in the game, turned out to be the defensive star of the game by forcing out David “Big Papi” Ortiz with an alert throw to second from right field in the bottom of the ninth inning.
St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright bowed his neck and worked out of a jam in the seventh inning after teammate Matt Holiday misplayed a line drive to left field into a double.
Way to go, guys. Let’s not wait another 14 years (2024?) before we win the next one, since idiot commissioner Selig has the winner receiving the home-field advantage for its league champion in the World Series in October.
One more thing … I’m sorry that George Steinbrenner died Tuesday morning, but you would have thought the longtime New York Yankees owner was Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox Sports, the way the Fox broadcasters went on about him. I didn’t even mind having a segment about what he meant to the Yankees, New York and even baseball during the pregame show. But Fox had to keep pounding us with it by breaking into play-by-play coverage during the game with interviews of various Yankees managers, players and former players. Enough is enough. We realize that New York is Fox’s biggest market, but the rest of us can’t stand the arrogant jerks — yes, even players I like are arrogant jerks when they play for the Yankees.
We understand that the National Weather Service has predicted a heat index of 106 for Central Arkansas tomorrow (Wednesday, July 14, 2010).
So, the city of North Little Rock is opening the Heat Relief Center at the North Little Rock Community Center at 2700 Willow Street in North Little Rock. It will be open from noon to 6 p.m.
Margaret Powell of the mayor’s office said residents may call the Heat Relief Hotline at 340-5454 for more information.
If you need help, call the hot line. Or, if you have a neighbor or someone unable to make the call, call the city to determine what to do.
Mike Dougherty's Blog 