Last night - I spent the evening calling out names of the 2008 GED graduates at Northeast State Community College in Rainesville. There is always a huge turnout for the event and everyone always makes me feel so welcome. Education is the cornerstone to success. Congrats to all the graduates.
I spent a lot of time yesterday visiting with the people in our Northeastern Counties - Marshall, Dekalb, and Jackson. My day started in Boaz helping program radios for our Early Warning Project. I even did the noon weathercast from the Walmart SuperCenter in Boaz. It's always great to get out of the building and shake hands with the people who watch NewsChannel 19. If you haven't heard, at the end of the day we raised over $19,000 to help the needy get life-saving NOAA weather radios. Here's a picture of some of the crew (L-R, James-Paul Dice, Judy Cornelius, creative services director, Dan Satterfield, Carson Clark, and Brad Hood, Sand Mountain Newsroom photographer.)
I'm returned Sunday from a visit to Florida. If you didn't know - that's my home state. Gas prices there are a little worse than here averaging about $3.60 per gallon for regular unleaded. You could say the theme of this trip was saving money at the pump. We started as soon as the airplane landed and we headed for the rental car. I picked a Toyota Prius Hybrid. I'm not one for endorsements, but fact is fact. We only spent $44 in gas and drove around 600 miles. The car averaged around 45mpg…not bad. My mom's neighbor recently purchased two electric vehicles for around town driving. They are called GEMs…that's short for Global Electric Motors. The little cars will run around 25mph and travel up to 30 miles on a single charge. Here's a picture of me and little "Dice" getting ready to head for the playground.
Spencer and I have a new hobby. We like to build model airplanes. In a way, I feel like I'm revisiting my childhood. As early as six years old, I was building model airplanes. It was something my dad got me into when I was a kid. Recently, Spencer and I headed to the hobby store and bought a kit for an F-117 Stealth Fighter. After about a week of on and off work, here's the end result.
