Tornado Training, Kobe Comes to Town, UW Softball

Did it really snow again in Seattle?? Supposedly it snows more in OKC than in Seattle however I picked the year that mother nature decided to make Seattle a winter wonderland. It was close to 80 degrees here yesterday however it was partially cloudy and uncomfortably windy when I went for my jog. It was 30 degrees though when I woke up this morning. Can't believe how quickly the weather changes around here.

Monday I went through a one hour training session to get prepared for tornado season. A lot of it was common sense stuff but there was some information that was helpful. They highly recommended that each of us purchase a weather radio which you program for your county and the radio alarms you as to when there is a tornado warning. I guess it automatically comes on and updates you when you are sleeping. Also learned not to go running to WalMart the next time a tornado comes through. I guess I will just resort to grabbing my matress and heading to the bathtub with a bike helmet on.

Tuesday was the Lakers for trip to OKC to take on the Thunder. Turns out a Lakers trip to OKC is no different than Seattle, lots of Lakers purple and gold. I guess Kobe and the fellas are just as popular out in the midwest. They still didn't outnumber the Thunder fans though as you could hear much louder applause during the game when the Thunder were doing well. Lakers won the game but the Thunder made it close in the 4th quarter for a while and everyone had a good time.

One of the stories that ran in the paper this week was that a driver struck and killed a bison on the highway. Sorry Sonics fans, it wasn't Rumble.

I also noticed this week that the Washington Huskies softball team is currently ranked #1 in the nation by ESPN.com. This has me excited because the College Softball World Series is played in Oklahoma City each year. I live about 15 miles from the stadium and you can bet I am planning on attending the tournament if the Dawgs are there in 3 months.

Rumble the Bison's Big Debut

The new mascot for the OKC Thunder is Rumble the Bison. The anticipation is now over and Rumble is doing a great job of introducing himself to the area. We were at the Ford Center until after midnight last Monday rehersing the halftime introduction.

We all thought that Rumble's unveiling was going to be the news of the day on Tuesday but instead another basketball story gave it a run for that title. Earlier in the day the Thunder pulled off a trade with the Hornets to get Tyson Chandler. Chandler was with the Hornets when they played in OKC for a couple of years and was a huge fan favorite. He has also been on record as saying how much he enjoyed playing in OKC so the fans were very excited about the move. Long story short, Chandler failed the physical the next day (he hasn't played lately due to an injury and apparently there were some concerns) and the trade was rescinded however for one day he was a member of the Thunder and stole some of Rumble's.........Thunder.

At halftime Rumble climbed onto a platform up in the rafters and was lowered onto the court while playing his drums. I never touched the court on Opening Night so I missed out on a lot of the excitement that went on before the game started however I was involved on this one and it was an experience that sent a chill down my spine. We had a full house on Tuesday and hardly anyone left their seats when Rumble entered for the first time and the crowd went nuts as Rumble descinded from high above.

As soon as Rumble landed on the court he trailed our dunk team's train down the court and attempted his first dunk. Unfortunately he didn't make it but it was still exciting. He then ran out to center court and performed a dance routine with the Thunder Girls before coming back over to the basket where a few of us had set up a 16 foot ladder from where he attempted a flip dunk. There is a high degree of difficulty on this dunk and he missed that one as well but it was close and still very impressive. The fans went nuts again and Rumble's entrance was a success even if the inital dunks weren't.

We also had a poster that we distributed of Rumble as fans were leaving. The poster distribution wasn't as smooth as it could have been as I didn't get all of the posters out to the tables as quickly as I should have but we still got them there in the end and gave away close to 15,000 which is unbelieveable for a post game giveaway (my Seattle experiences are that most people are in a hurry to get home or want to beat traffic and usually only about 50-60% of the fans will take the time to grab a poster as they exit the arena). For the record, Chris Paul made a basket with less than 2 seconds to go in the game and the Hornets beat the Thunder by two despite Kevin Durant's 47 points.

The attention that Rumble received the following day was unbelieveable. He made live appearances on every morning news show and was the talk of the town (my sister pointed out to me that it doesn't take much to be the talk of the town in OKC but I think that is part of the mystic of a smaller community). He was even all over ESPN and ESPN2. We was the #9 Play of the Day on SportsCenter and got talked about on all of the ESPN talkshows (FirstTake, Around the Horn, Pardon the Interruption, etc). The one negative was that some of the guys on the local OKC sports radio show were talking about him later that afternoon and decided that it was funny to mention the person inside the costume by name about a half dozen times over a 5 minute window. That person of course is my friend so I called him up right away and told him what was going on. He immediately called our Community Relations Department who had already heard it themselves and called the Program Director of the station to ask them to stop.

Friday night Rumble came out to Buffalo Wild Wings where the team was having a viewing party for our road game against Phoenix. Rumble again was outstanding and I finally found time to get my picture taken with him as well as pics of him signing a pennant on the top of a kid's head and posing for pictures with kids. I've included the pictures on here.

Tomorrow we are being offered a chance to go through a Tornado Prepardness course at work. I definitely showed that I need it after my first tornado two weeks ago so I will be there and will be paying close attention.

Mascot Night Tonight, Fans Win Thanks To Durant, Familiar Faces at Ford Center

Big time at the Ford Center tonight as the Thunder get ready to unveil our new mascot. We were at the arena until 12:15 last night rehearsing for the big event and I will be sure to include pictures on the next post.

All Star weekend came and went and it was quite the coming out party for Kevin Durant Friday night as he scored 46 points in the NBA sophomores vs rookies All Star game. The Thunder put on a watch party at Coach's, a sports bar up in Edmond which included appearances from our Drum Team, a few Thunder Girls and our in house M.C. The Thunder had 3 players participating in the game (Durant and Green for the sophomores and Westbrook for the rookies) and a drawing was held for a free pair of tickets each time one of our players scored a basket. Fortunately our staff brought along plenty of tickets as many fans were winners thanks to Durant's hot shooting.

Last week's tornado caused me to not write about the previous weekend's events. We had a 3 game home stand last week that included Denver on the 4th, Portland on the 6th and Sacramento on the 8th. All 3 teams have familiar faces which made the games fun. The highlight of the Denver game was getting a chance to say hello to Assistant Coach Tim Grgurich after the game. "Coach Grg" was an assistant coach under George Karl in Seattle during the 90s and has always been very friendly to me over the years whenever I see him at games. I don't really know the coach other than years of seeing him at team functions and in the halls of the Key Arena but he always recognizes me and makes it a point to ask me how things are going. He is one of the true good guys in the league and I always enjoy the opporuntity to say hello.

Portland's Strength Coach is Bob Medina who was also on Karl's staff back in the 90s and I enjoyed a chance to catch up with him for a few minutes when the TrailBlazers came to the Ford Center. Bob is another really good guy and it was nice to hear life is treating him well. Also enjoyed seeing Nate McMillan and Brandon Roy walking through the arena as the "206" was well represented.

Sacramento's Strength Coach is my buddy Daniel Shapiro, another former Sonics employee. The Kings flew in on Saturday afternoon for our Sunday game which meant I was able to take Daniel out to Club Rodeo where a bunch of us were celebrating a co-workers birthday. Daniel is also a Seattle native so hanging out at a bar with a bullriding area was a new experience for him. I've included a handful of pictures on the post of our trip to Club Rodeo. One thing I didn't get a picture of was the suit that Kings player Spencer Hawes was wearing before and after the game. Hawes is a Seattle native and former UW player and wore a yellow suit with a green and yellow Space Needle tie.

Here is a picture of my buddy Stephen playing drums behind his back at Coach's during halftime of the Sophomores vs Rookies game.

Tornado Damage Along Northwest Expressway

Thoughts and prayers go out to the folks effected by the 5 tornados that touched down in Oklahoma on Tuesday. At least 9 people were killed in Lone Grove which is about 100 miles south of OKC and I've heard that 17 counties in the state suffered damage.

I had an opportunity today to see aftermath from the Tuesday tornado that touched down just a few miles south from where I live. I interviewed two college students today for a job with the Thunder and when I called them this morning to give them an opportunity to pick a meeting location near their campus, they said Starbucks on the Northwest Expressway at Rockwell Ave. Even though it is only 5 miles from me, I had never been through that intersection before but knew from watching the news that it was the location of some damaged buildings so I took my camera with me and snapped pictures.

It is mind boggling to see how random the damage is. Northwest Expressway runs east/west and the two most damaged buildings that I saw were on opposite sides of the street and most of the other buildings surrounding them were not even touched.

Chuck E. Cheese's pizza on the south side of the expressway had the most damage. I included two pictures from the building (top of the blog) and is shut down. Quite a bit of damage to the back of the building but fortunately no one was injured. Also took a picture of what was left of the sign for the restaurant and the picture next to it is what is left of the sign for the Italian resaurant that is next door.

The picures below are of a building that has a handful of businesses (Fantastic Sam's, Cricket, Dental Office, one or two others). This complex is on the south side of the street so I am assuming that it was hit before the tornado crossed the street and hit Chuck E Cheese's. This building has a fence going around it and looks as though it suffered quite a bit of damage to the roof. I did see a woman coming out of this building from what looked like a door near the dental offfice entrance however the businesses were not open. The strange thing was that I had lunch at the Chick Fil A right next door which was not damaged and didn't even notice this building until walking back to my car after eating.

Tornado in February!!

My plan when I woke up this morning was to blog about my past weekend. Things changed in a big way today and instead it is all about a wild afternoon. This is a long post but I had to include everything. Might have to blog again tomorrow about the weekend. I can sum up an exciting afternoon with one word.....TORNADO.

The weather forecast for today was supposed to be for a clear morning with possible late afternoon thundershowers. I drove my car over to Lake Hefner (about 5 miles south from where I live) and parked my car at the north end of the lake ready for a 7 mile run. I started my run at around 1:20 pm and figured I was safe because the weather report had mentioned that we wouldn't probably see rain for a couple of hours. Looking across the lake from the north end I could see there were a lot of dark ugly clouds to the south so I turned on the radio for a few minutes to see if I could get an update on the weather but heard nothing. Figured I would cut my run maybe a little short if the thundershowers kicked in.

The first 45 minutes of my run were fairly uneventful. It was cloudy and the temperature was in the mid 60s and felt pretty good. For the next 7 or 8 minutes it sprinkled lightly but wasn't too bad. When I got less than a mile from my car the clouds became very dark but there wasn't much rain however there was a lot of thunder and lightning. At that point I really wanted to hurry back to my car because the lighning was kind of freaking me out but I wasn't too worried about anything else. I got to within about 50 feet of my car and suddenly the area tornado alarms started going off. They test the alarms at noon every Saturday so I know what they sound like but today was Tuesday and it wasn't noon. I can't imagine how nervous I would have been if the sirens at started earlier in my run when I was as far out as 3 miles from my car. Lucky timing.

Got into my car and immediately turned on the radio. The broadcasters were talking about a possible tornado over near Lake Overhauser and that it was heading north/northeast. Overhauser is about 10 miles southwest so I knew I wasn't in immediate danger but I did realize that it was heading in my direction. It also wasn't a tornado at that point. As I started driving toward home they were updating the storm and mentioned that it was getting closer to where I was and they mentioned that it looked like it was heading toward Mercy Hospital which is directly across the turnpike from where I live (All I have to do is open the blinds in my front room and I stare right at Mercy). They started mentioning that anyone in that area should get inside and get to a place below ground. I live on the 2nd floor of an apartment building so I decided I wasn't heading home and I made a beeline for the Wal Mart about 3 miles east from where I live. Figured a large public place would be well equipt for something like this. Looking back on it now, the Wal Mart doesn't have an emergency storm location and the roof looks like it would peel off rather easily.

Right as I was getting out of my car they mentioned again on the radio that Mercy was in the path and they also started mentioning that the tornado had touched down and debris was seen flying throughout the area. I'm nervous at this point but I noticed that most of the people in WalMart were going about their business as though nothing was happening. I stood right outside the front entrance with a handful of other people and we watched the storm that would become the tornado up north go moving right by us. I never did see the actual tornado swirling but watching the clouds go by, you could tell they were up to no good. Stayed at WalMart for about 15 minutes and then went back to my car to tune in the radio. At that point they were mentioning that north Edmond, about 10 miles north of the WalMart was getting hit pretty hard. Found out later that 6 homes in Edmond were destroyed but that no one was seriously hurt. Also found out that there were businesses damaged about 5 miles south of where I live as as well as 2 or 3 miles northeast of my apartment, kind of freaky when you know damage has occured both south and north of you. They were also saying there was another storm moving up from the south that could also potentially be a tornado. Still didn't really want to go home and I was getting hungry so I went to an Italian restaurant that shares the parking lot with the WalMart to eat. While in the restaurant I was watching other really dark ugly clouds come toward the building. When the clouds closed in on us the building started getting hit with gumball sized hail (saw on the news that some parts of OKC got hit with tennis ball size hail).

Ate my meal and by that time the reports were that there was still potential for tornados but that it wasn't too likely so I headed home and kept a close eye on the news for the next couple of hours as slowly they kept downgrading the chance for another tornado in the area. From 5:00-7:00 tonight there was severe rain, thunder and lightning though and a couple of times the lights flickered (posted a few pictures on here that I took off of my deck right before the rains moved in, didn't have my camera on me when the main tornado passed by me). I did just hear on the news a little while ago that a tornado did hit the south part of the state late tonight and the early report was that at least 3 people were killed. These tornados are serious stuff.

Moral to the story. Don't go jogging to far from your car when the weather is crappy in Oklahoma and be sure to listen to the radio and or TV to determine exactly where the storm and potential tornado are heading. Also makes me wonder why there are people that actually like to get into their cars and chase these things. Not a good idea.

The Color Purple, Clinton Rocks, Go Cardinals, Sooners-Volunteers, Anthony Again

It was been a week of entertainment diversity since my last post. Here is a quick list:

- Last night Thunder Game

- Monday night, attended Women's College Basketball Game

- Sunday, watched the Super Bowl

- Saturday, attended Heavy Metal Concert

- Friday, attended Jazz Concert

- Thursday, attended Musical "The Color Purple".

Who said there isn't variety in Oklahoma!! Last Thursday I went to see Oprah Winfrey's The Color Purple with 7 of my co-workers (Oprah is the Producer, she wasn't in it). I have to admit that I have become a fairly big fan of musicals over the last 18 months or so and wasn't sure if I would be able to find anyone to go with. I sent out an e-mail to everyone in my department to see if they were interested and I was pleasantly surprised to find that many were interested. The musical was outstanding and we had a blast. The next night about 30 of us went out to a local bar in Bricktown to watch one of our co-workers play in a Jazz band (same group I wrote about in my last e-mail).

Saturday night I decided it was time to have revisit my high school days and drove 95 miles to Clinton to see 3 of my favorite 80's bands: Dokken, Warrant and Ratt. Couldn't find anyone to go with so I drove to the Lucky Star Casino by myself. The concert was in a large tent out in the parking lot (guessing maybe 1500 people in attendence) and lasted for about 4 hours. As you might imagine, there were all types of people at the concert and people watching in between shows was almost as much fun as the concerts themselves. For the record, my favorite band of the 3 is Dokken but they were the least impressive performers. The other highlight of my quick trip to Clinton was that I got to have a Dairy Queen hamburger. Had not seen a DQ since moving so it was a nice treat. Also drove by the Route 66 museum which I didn't know was in Clinton until I drove by it. Will definitely make time to stop off there the next time I am passing by as I've got to think that they have some really cool nostalgic stuff.

Watched the Super Bowl alone. Normally I will try to find a party to attend but I was as eager to hunt one down this year as I actually had a rooting interest this time around and wanted to focus on the game. I am kind of a closet Cardinals fan (I would be a much bigger fan if they weren't in the same division as the Seahawks but I can't control that). The Phoenix area has kind of become a home away from home over the last 8 years since my Mom has spent so much time down there and consequently I like to root for the sports teams when I can. My favorite is the Coyotes of the NHL as I never had to worry about them playing the Mariners, Seahawks, Sonics or Thunder. I just heard on ESPN this morning that the Coyotes are having financial issues so I am keeping my fingers crossed that they aren't the next NHL team to relocate. They play in a great building and it would be a shame to have them go. Anyhow my Mom sent me a Cardinals NFC Champions hat that I proudly wore for a couple of days leading up to the Super Bowl and during the game. I also wore my Arizona Rock & Roll Marathon t-shirt on the day of the big game thinking that maybe it would bring them good luck (see pic). Exciting game and I talked to my Mom at halftime on the phone from Phoenix as we were both bummed about the interception for a TD on the final play of the first half. Thought they were going to pull it out but it wasn't meant to be. My Mom is happy that the game is now over though as she pointed out that it was the only thing that they talked about on the TV down there for two weeks straight.

Monday I got a day of game invite to go to the Oklahoma Sooners vs Tennessee Volunteers women's basketball game at the Ford Center. This was a huge game for a number of reasons. Going into the game OU was ranked #2 in the nation and TU was #15. The Lady Vols are catched by LEGEND Pat Summit how is the winningest coach in the history of either men's and women's college basketball. Summit had 999 wins coming into the game so she was trying to be the first to get the big 1000. ESPN aired the game and the broadcasters were Brent Musberger, Nancy Lieberman Cline (however you spell her name, I should know since she is one of the greatest female baskeball players of all time) and the winningest Men's coach ever, Bobby Knight. I sat 8 rows behind them and included a nice picture here of the backs of their heads. It looked good for her early as they had a 33-18 lead before OU woke up and scored the next 19 points to take the lead. OU pulled away in the last half and won 80-70. The other big news of the game was that OU star player Courtney Paris only scored 9 points which broke her NCAA record streak of 112 straight double doubles (meaning she had scored at least 10 points and grabbed at least 10 rebounds in 112 straight games). Everyone in the building knew she was one point away for the final 90 seconds and the crowd started going nuts every time she touched the ball. She finally fouled out of the game with 30 seconds to go and the crowd over around 15,000 gave her a standing ovation and started chanting her first name. Great game.

Last night was a Deja Vu moment for the Thunder. Last month Kevin Durant put us ahead of the Nuggets in the Ford Center on a 3 point shot with 3 seconds to go in a game but then Carmelo Anthony hit a 3 point shot at the buzzer to beat us. Last night Durant made a 2 point shot with 17 seconds left to give us the lead but Anthony came back down the court and made a basket with 5 seconds to go to give the Nuggets a 1 point victory. Fortunately we don't play the Nuggets again this season in OKC so there won't be any more Anthony heroics in our house for a while.