Friday, July 9, 2010

What Meteorologist Do....

Take a large, almost round, rotating sphere 8000 miles in diameter. Then, surround it with a murky, viscous atmosphere of gases mixed with water vapor. Tilt the object on it's axis so it wobbles back and forth with respect to a source of heat and light. Proceed to freeze it at both ends and roast it in the middle. Cover most of its surface with liquid that constantly feeds vapor into the atmosphere as the sphere tosses billions of gallons up and down to the rhythmic pulling of a captive satellite and the sun. Then try to predict the conditions of that atmosphere over a small area within a 5 mile radius for a period of one to seven days in advance! I LOVE IT=)

Monday, June 28, 2010

Round Two....???

This past weekend I was planning on heading into Arlington to catch the Astros vs. Rangers game. PLANNING is the key word.

I left around two o'clock and was beyond ecstatic. This feeling of excitement only lasted for about 15 minutes. At about ten miles outside of Abilene's city limits my trip took a wrong turn. All of the sudden my tire just popped! Luckily it was my back tire so I could maintain control.

This might sound strange but I had pretty good luck through out this entire ordeal. First off my tire flew off right in font of an exit for a rest stop. Two, right as I pulled into the rest stop a truck driver named Royce was checking his tire and offered to help me. Luckily Royce new what he was doing and my spare was on within fifteen minutes. The only problem was that my spare was extremely low on air and in no way ready to make the trek to Arlington.

I turned back towards the Discount Tire in Abilene. I was done with the tire shop around 5:00 and decided to hit the road one more time. This time things were going great until I hit Palo Pinto County. I was pulled over and received the very first ticket of my life! I don't think he believed my story about already having a flat tire that day.

Needles to say I missed the game but ended up having a wonderful weekend regardless of the rocky start.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Hello!

Hi everyone and welcome to my new blog. My name is Kailey Franz and I am the morning meteorologist for KTAB News.

When I first moved to Abilene I had NO IDEA what to expect. Its been over a year now and I'm still surprised at what each day holds. Trust me when I say you wouldn't believe half the stuff that has happened to me during my time in Abilene.

One of my most memorable experiences was on a drive from College Station back to Abilene. I was on the home stretch of a four to five hour drive when the unthinkable happened.

It was a little after eight o'clock on a small road about twenty miles out side of Dublin when I drove over a bale wire. Keep in mind it was dark outside and I had no way of seeing this wire stretched across the road. All of the sudden my engine just stopped and my car came to a stand still. This wouldn't be that big of a deal but it was dark outside, in the middle of nowhere and to top it off...NO CELL PHONE SERVICE!

I started to walk until I could get service but by the time I finally got through to someone my battery was drained from trying to make so many calls. I only had my car charger with me and that wouldn't do the trick since my car was now completely dead. After my phone call finally got through to my dad he knew that I was about ten miles outside of Dublin and called the police to pick me up.

I walked back to my car and waited for the police to come by . When they finally arrived they dropped me off at a Dublin motel about 15 minutes away. Once there I could use the room phone to call work and let them know I wouldn't be there the next day.

The next morning a tow truck driver, Terrell, picked me up from the motel and we headed back to pick up my car. From there he took me to the closest dealership that could fix my car. I ended up in Stephenville for the rest of the afternoon until I could get a rental car.

I enjoyed the rental car for about a week until I could come back and pick up my car.

Needless to say I learned a couple of things....always carry both cell phone chargers on long trips, try to avoid driving the back roads in the dark when you don't have cell phone service, and last but not least don't drive over a wire stretched across the road.