Butchers! Why do they do that?

NBC 5 is located in a historic east Fort Worth neighborhood with streets canopied by beautiful pecan trees. Well, the trees used to be beautiful, until the contractor for Oncor rushed through the neighborhood and butchered the trees in the name of keeping the limbs out of the power lines.

Look, my house lost power for more than 15 hours after last week’s storm, I fully understand the necessity of keeping tree limbs out of the wires to make sure the lights stay on when the wind kicks up. But please! There must be a better way than this! (see pics)

The contractor claimed “just doing my job” as the explanation, and some people say “homeowners shouldn’t have planted so close to the lines.” All of that may be true, but many of those now butchered trees predate the power lines, and I would submit to you arborist we have interviewed on NBC-5 say they can be trimmed in a way to properly accommodate the power lines and still preserve the beauty of the tree.

There is an ultimate solution to preserving the beauty of a neighborhood and improving safety of the power lines in bad weather; bury the power lines. More easily said than done, granted, very expensive, granted, but still a better way to go in the long run. But, until either Oncor or the neighborhoods pony up the cash to put the power lines in the dirt, can we please find some civility for these trees? Oncor says it works with homeowners, who say “oh no they don’t,” and the pictures speak for themselves.

Back in the streets to Fill the Boots.

You are going to notice a bunch of fire fighters at street corners in Fort Worth through the weekend.    They are waving large, sporting gleaming smiles and asking you to help fill the boots in their hands to help Jerry’s kids.   For the better part of 3 decades now, Fort Worth fire fighters have marched into the street to help raise money for the fight against neuromuscular disease we call muscular dystrophy.

I ran with my heroes at the corner of University and 7th street near the Modern Museum Thursday, (click here take a look at the video) and I am so impressed with the generosity of the people who smiled back at us and put money in the fireman’s boots.    Maybe it is because they love fire fighters, maybe it is because they know the money raised by our fire fighters stays here and helps supports the 7 Muscular Dystrophy Association clinics in north Texas, maybe it is because they know their money goes to major research projects here in north Texas rushing to decode the cause of muscular dystrophy.

I choose to believe the reason so many people stop and fill the fireman’s boot for MDA is because they know we are winning this fight for our kids and it is the right thing to do.   Fort Worth fire fighters will be on the streets all weekend long, and I know you will smile, stop and be generous, as you always have.    We are so lucky to live in a place where people are so generous when they know the mission.

On behalf of hundreds of Jerry’s kids here in north Texas, thanks for helping the firemen and MDA.    Lets fill their boots tall this weekend.

TXDOT Dangerous again! Mow the weeds!

Mow the weeds. I am talking about TXDOT, not the City of Dallas. The state’s lame excuse of being shy of money for not taking care of the grass strips along its highways is just that, lame.

A viewer pointed out, if a Dallas resident let his front yard grow up like that, chest high in some places, he would be getting a citation and a fine from the city. Bingo! Letting the weeds and grass grow that tall is dangerous, it blocks the view of drivers.

I love Bluebonnets on the side of our highways just like the next loyal Texan, but letting the weeds and grass grow to these preposterous heights around those wild flower patches is just wrong. TXDOT, again are you listening? We pay a bunch of gasoline taxes in that $3.58 a gallon, taxes to maintain our roads, use some it and assume your responsibility, mow the weeds.    Maybe the city should symbolically start writing the state citations and assessing symbolic fines to make a big stink until TXDOT does its duty.

Dangerous! Frustratingly Dangerous!

My heart was breaking for the little 5 year old girl trapped inside that smashed SUV, trapped by an overturned cement mixer truck Friday afternoon.    The driver of the big mixer says he swerved to dodge another vehicle, jumped the center median into oncoming traffic at the merge of John Carpenter Freeway (183) and Stemmons (I-35) right there at the Mockingbird exit.    His truck, loaded with more than 50 thousand tons of wet cement landed on top of an SUV driven by a 41 year old woman and carrying her 5 year old.   The woman had no chance, she died on the spot, but by some stroke of miracle the little girl survived.   Dallas Fire and Rescue agonizingly and emotionally struggled for hours to pull her out alive.   My hat is off to you guys, great job.

My frustration is that merge, and one just a few miles back at highway 114 and 183 just a few feet east of Texas Stadium are dangerous, they have been dangerous for all the years I have been driving (and that’s a long time friends) and the worst part, state highway engineers know it!   They know those merges are poorly designed, poorly constructed and dangerous as all get out.   There are have been dozens upon dozens of accidents directly and indirectly caused by that road design.

Fix it!   We know it is bad, we know it can kill, we pay hundreds of millions of dollars in gasoline taxes to fix our roads every year, and not a penny is spent on fixing what has often been called one of the most dangerous stretches of roads in Texas.   The time is now, are you listening down there in Austin, and over at the regional TXDOT office?   Use this terrible accident as the lightning rod to get that road redesigned and fixed, and don’t come back here with the idea of doing it with another toll road.   Use our taxes we have already paid.   We have had enough!

Curiouser and curiouser.

This is sort of like a rite of passage for parents. Curious George showed up in the arms of my daughter Gracie today, her teacher sent George home with her to spend a whimsical weekend doing what ever we do and going where ever we go. He will return to Gracie’s kindergarten class Monday morning with a full report to the class, complete with pictures of course.

Gracie and George showed up at NBC-5 after the 6pm news Friday evening for a quick tour of our new HD studio. George doesn’t say much, Gracie does not have that problem (kind of like the George Burns and Gracie Allen show of years gone by).

Gracie showed George the NBC-5 Rogue’s Gallery, she wanted George to know which one was her Daddy. He wanted to know why Jane McGarry’s picture is on the top row, and I told George beauty always comes before age. George did not understand, but he laughed.

George is a hands on kind of guy and wanted to see the new HD control room. He learned we call it the APC, that stands for Automate Production Control, although people still tell the machines and computers what to do. George wanted to click a mouse on the News Producer’s computer, but Gracie told him that probably would not be a good idea. So, off they went to the studio.

David Finfrock, who George learned is our NBC-5 Chief Meteorologist, was still there shooting a promo. George was impressed by the size of the new studio, he visited the old one that was about half this size. He says he likes the colors, but he’s a little unsure about those cameras that move around by themselves. I explained the cameras are now run by a robots.

David is a mighty busy man this time of year with all the nasty storms and such, but he took time to show George the most powerful weather center in North Texas. He even got up close to David’s personal weather computer and saw the forecast for tomorrow, says he couldn’t wait until the 10pm news.

Gracie let George try out Jane’s seat on the news set. Impressive he says. Big words for such a small monkey, I said. George offered to stay around and help deliver the 10pm news, but Gracie said they needed to go home and rest so George would be ready to go to the soccer game Saturday morning.

Before they left, Gracie thought George needed a little snack, so they stopped by my desk in the newsroom and sneaked some of Daddy’s “diet” popcorn. What a great time we had. These are the moments we will remember, because mixed in with all the bad things that happen during a news day, our children help us to recognize and celebrate what is important.

Sirens in the night.

I can tell you the exact moment the storm hit with vengence in my neighborhood this morning. 3:34am the shreeeeekkkkking of the tornado warning sirens in Colleyville came screaming into the windows of my

bedroom, at the very moment our power went out and the house alarm went off.

The sirens are jarring enough, but when I went to the window I heard another sound that concerned me much more, a constant roar and then a constant whistle like that of a steam engine. I know what that sound is, I have heard it several times in years past, that is the distinctive signature of a tornado.

I ran upstairs and grabbed my two little girls and rushed back down to my bedroom. My wife and I huddled the girls in our closet with lots of pillows, blankets and bottled water. I grabbed my battery powered radio and the cell phones and we hunkered down.

30 minutes later the storm was gone. The neighborhood was pitch dark, not a light anywhere. No power, no phones and no going back to sleep. My 2 little girls, after getting over the scare, seem to think this was a great time for a party. I finally got them to quiet down for about an hour’s nap before we got up for school.

We saw lots of minor damage on the way to school, uprooted trees, bent over billboards and such, but nothing major.

The girls made me take this picture of the sun breaking through the clouds, they think that is cool.

It is going to be a long day for them, and for me. The weather is much better now, maybe I will get to sleep straight through tonight. Yea, right.

Tiny angel in a wheelchair.

Sometimes I feel like I live a charmed life. I get to meet a lot of interesting people, many of whom are movers and shakers in the world; others are celebrities of one stripe or another. But, some of the most impressive people I get to meet are those involved with the various philanthropy projects, which I volunteer to work.

Over the weekend I hosted the Moslah Shrine Children’s Hospital Gala in Fort Worth, and I met the most amazing little girl. Leigh Dittman is a gorgeous and very smart second grader with an infectious smile and sparkling eyes that will burn a loving hole in your heart.  Hard to believe she is so full of life confined to a tiny wheelchair, she sits barely one foot off the floor.

Leigh has a disease called Osteogenesis imperfecta, most commonly called brittle bone disease. She has literally grown up in Shrine hospitals, after being born with many broken bones, including the ones that deformed her legs. Her 3 year old sister looms over her like a giant.

Leigh has endured so much but never complains. Shrine doctors have helped her learn to walk, but her effervescent personality is something God gave her. Saturday night she sang the Star Spangled banner for the Gala crowd, there was not a dry eye in the place. But, what stole the heart of everyone was when I sat on the floor and talked with her on a microphone. She spoke from her heart, with the words way beyond her 8 years of age, thanking the Shiners for the hospitals and doctors that gave her a chance to live and to walk.

Anytime you feel like you have it bad, or your problems are just too much to handle, think about little Leigh. The positive attitude of this tiny angel in a wheelchair provides a lesson in humility and graciousness for us all.

Can’t stop time.

Sometimes you just want to reach up and grab the hands on the clock stop the passage of time.   Parents know the feeling all too well, seeing their children go from diapers to graduation from high school seemingly overnight.   You blink and all of those wonderful experiences fly by, and you hope you got the pictures of video to re-live the moments later.  I experienced that emotion over the weekend when my oldest son, Alexander Miles (who we affectionately call Xander),  married his love Hilary Brown.

Weddings are a mixed bag of emotions, both an end and a beginning.   The end, of course, is of childhood, marriage represents the real cutting of the cord with parents.   The beginning is your child and his bride really on their own facing the task of making their own way.   It is, in a fashion, the circle of life repeating itself.   I will fondly remember my bright little boy Xander with an infectious grin, I will never tire of his voice calling me Daddy, and then in later years as his voice grew deeper just Dad.   I will always remember the late nights working on school projects, the long vacation trips and our mutual love for Tom Clancy novels and Sci-Fi movies.

I can never get enough of Xander’s time, and he probably says the same about me.   I love him dearly and hope we find time to still just talk and visit and see the occasional Sci-fi together.   He is my little boy, all grown up and now he has his own life to live and family to build with his bride Hilary.   My wish for them is love and happiness, and grandchildren I can some day tell wonderful stories about their dad.

Ready for a new energy policy yet?

Gasoline is $3.22 a gallon for unleaded regular today, diesel prices are near $4 a gallon. Truckers are parked around the nation in protest, grocery prices are going up to pay for the cost of transportation and many people are now being forced to change their buying habits. Many stores are feeling the pinch in lost sales, people are cutting back on entertainment and staying home.

I think it is time we realize there are environmentally safe ways to drill off shore and in the Anwr Province. Congress can rant all it wants to at the big profits being raked in by the big oil companies, but I don’t hear any alternatives. We have so many untapped reserves right now (see my blog on January 15, 2008, in a short period of time we could have our own oil flowing into our own refineries. You want to watch the price of gasoline drop in a hurry, here’s a solution.

We need to recognize if we don’t find a way to make it possible in Congress for the oil companies to build some new refineries, we are going to really be stuck.

I want clean air and fuel efficient vehicles just as much as any of the most staunch environmentalist. But, I also want our economy to survive, I want us, make that the U.S., to be independent of foreign oil.

If we don’t do this now, and I mean right now, we will pay the price of in lost freedom and dependence on others who don’t like us for a long time. This is a hole we can dig our selves out of, or we can just wait for our enemies to push the dirt in on top of us.

Oh my ears!

My ears are still ringing after taking my 8 and 6 year old to see High School Musical on Ice. We managed to buy seats close to the ice, good for the girls not good for daddy’s ears. I knew my little ones watch the Disney channel, but I did not know they knew every story line, every word of every song and loved the translation of this musical on ice.

Believe it or not, I liked the show too, because I recognized the songs. I guess the tunes soaked into my head at home from being near the TV where Disney was entertaining the girls.

It is so much fun getting to share this experience with my girls, they are growing up so fast, and since I work nights I miss some of the good stuff after school. I listened to Trace Adkins’ new song “You’re gonna miss this,” if you are a parent I highly suggest you give it a try. The words put a lot into perspective. Don’t let the time with your little ones slip by, even if the loud concert does cost you a little bit of hearing. It’s worth the investment.