There is no big philosophical contribution today. Just kind of a rant about vacation and knowing when to turn off work. I'll also reflect for a moment on this week's weather in Ohio.
I just spent 8 days in Florida. It is suppose to be a vacation. When I take vacation, it's never a true vacation. As news director of multiple news operations I simply like to know what's going on. Whether I'm on vacation or not. I'm always watching news somewhere? Talk about addiction.
Love it, hate it, but technology has made it possible to watch our newscasts from essentially anywhere in the world. I watched on my laptop, my newly acquired Kindle and of course my cell phone. I only called in once. I received a phone call from our school district to tell me they were going to announce a major re-organization of the the school district. I wanted to make sure we didn't miss it. We had missed a meeting on the very topic the week before I took my time off. Sitting in shorts in air conditioning monitored our Ohio snow storms while I sat in 75 degree weather. I basically made sure that our school delays and cancellations were kept up to date via remote. I also killed those cancellations that were outdated . How strange to be doing snow duties while enjoying the Florida heat.
It was a vacation because I didn't have to answer phone calls from groups and organizations who had not pre-registered during the past five years or were simply trying to get their business name on TV. I have some medical facilities that like us to include their names in our closure crawls. They have told me up front that they do it because it is cheap advertising. We no longer air office closings for individual doctors.
Aside from that, I pretty much left my Lima staff alone. They need a vacation break from me as well.
I just spent 8 days in Florida. It is suppose to be a vacation. When I take vacation, it's never a true vacation. As news director of multiple news operations I simply like to know what's going on. Whether I'm on vacation or not. I'm always watching news somewhere? Talk about addiction.
Love it, hate it, but technology has made it possible to watch our newscasts from essentially anywhere in the world. I watched on my laptop, my newly acquired Kindle and of course my cell phone. I only called in once. I received a phone call from our school district to tell me they were going to announce a major re-organization of the the school district. I wanted to make sure we didn't miss it. We had missed a meeting on the very topic the week before I took my time off. Sitting in shorts in air conditioning monitored our Ohio snow storms while I sat in 75 degree weather. I basically made sure that our school delays and cancellations were kept up to date via remote. I also killed those cancellations that were outdated . How strange to be doing snow duties while enjoying the Florida heat.
It was a vacation because I didn't have to answer phone calls from groups and organizations who had not pre-registered during the past five years or were simply trying to get their business name on TV. I have some medical facilities that like us to include their names in our closure crawls. They have told me up front that they do it because it is cheap advertising. We no longer air office closings for individual doctors.
Aside from that, I pretty much left my Lima staff alone. They need a vacation break from me as well.
 The iconic South Beach mansion where clothing designer Gianni Versace was killed is listed for sale at $125 million. I covered this story for NBC San Diego. The murder suspect was the Hillcrest District. I did allow myself to have a little fun. A former television friend of mine who lives in West Palm Beach spent Saturday night at a place called Mango's.in South Beach Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyrvGCiLPao&feature=player_embedded |  I took a moment to meet a couple of the band members. If you ever get a chance check out Mango's. The entertainment runs from 8pm to 4am with singing, dancing, dining and drinking. I checked out at midnight,
|  Me out of character in front of the Clevelander club in South Beach. NOTICE jacket? It was a chilly 55 degrees that night so everyone was bundled up like it was freezing. Escape to Miami Beach |
I did do some things that were right (healthy) . I walked nearly 3 miles a day along Lake Jackson in Sebring. I thought that I would gain weight while I was down there but with brisk walking, i actually lost a few pounds. So far I've lost a little over 100 pounds. I ate healthy and excercised when I could. It was so nice not struggling to squeeze in the airline seats.
One day my parents took me to Lake Placid Florida. After a light breakfast we stopped to see all the murals painted on the sides of buildings.Lake Placid is know at the City of Murals. there must have been more than 100 paintings. It took us a few hours to drive by and in some cases shoot photos. They had different artist assigned to each buidling in town and used a blank wall as a canvas. The paintings were impressive. One painting of a cattle round up actually had live sound of a cattle round up being pumped out loud speakers to add to the moment. Same thing with the train mural. Whistles, bells and railroad sounds were blasted to make the engine come alive. The most impressive painting was part of the Lake Placid Rotary Park.. It was stocked with Coy fish and gecko lizards ran rampant. It had live trees mixed in with painted trees on the wall. it was difficult to tell which was live and which was painted. I would love to see something like this done in Lima however i think vandals would destroy any project that might be constructed.
One day my parents took me to Lake Placid Florida. After a light breakfast we stopped to see all the murals painted on the sides of buildings.Lake Placid is know at the City of Murals. there must have been more than 100 paintings. It took us a few hours to drive by and in some cases shoot photos. They had different artist assigned to each buidling in town and used a blank wall as a canvas. The paintings were impressive. One painting of a cattle round up actually had live sound of a cattle round up being pumped out loud speakers to add to the moment. Same thing with the train mural. Whistles, bells and railroad sounds were blasted to make the engine come alive. The most impressive painting was part of the Lake Placid Rotary Park.. It was stocked with Coy fish and gecko lizards ran rampant. It had live trees mixed in with painted trees on the wall. it was difficult to tell which was live and which was painted. I would love to see something like this done in Lima however i think vandals would destroy any project that might be constructed.
 Lake Placid Rotary Club Park. |  There was painting along an entire wall of a store that included a full cattle drive with sound effects. Thankfully they didn't bring in manure to smell. |  The Atlantic Railroad is honored with painting and sound. Crossing guard has flashing lights and whistles. |
Sadly, as much as I wanted to do avoid news...the day I arrived in Florida was the day of the Connecticut children shootings. The day I left was the sniper shootings of the New York firefighters. I had access to stations in Tampa, Orlando, Ft Myers,Sarasota and West Palm Beach. Honestly the events just made me sick to my stomach. As much as you might think every show looked different. They were remarkably also similar. Beautiful female anchors , Ken doll looking males with baritone pipes that projected perfectly. But the news was filled with local shooting sidebars. If I left with any impressions of Florida newscast it was this: Every city down there is full of shootings every night. Technically they are superior to our local Lima stations but they too also made lots of mistakes. There was also too much news. Newscasts were starting at 4;30 am until 7:30 pm at night and then again at 10 and 11pm. With one eye I watched them all. News is an addiction and there is plenty of access to it in Florida. I probably would have slept more if had stayed home in Ohio.
|  We got away with no snow last year so it was bound to come. It just so happens on the day I cam back from Florida. It makes me want to turn around and head back south. To be honest , I just hate cold weather and snow. | 
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I came home and of course we are in the midst of a heavy snow storm. It was a blizzard warning but really it was just a good ol fashion Ohio snow which we luckily avoided last year. My first day of returning to work I had an eye appointment. You know I am getting older. Anyway I called in advance to make sure they were open due to the "blizzard" conditions. Yep come on down they said. So I hop in my jeep and about halfway there I did a 360 do-nut in the middle of the road. Luckily there were no other cars on the road at 8am. I decided right there and then it was time to get a new set of tires. I had gotten my money's worth on this set.
I'll make a very long story short. Make sure to compare tire prices. Avoid the big chains. They had me convinced they were giving me a deal at 658 dollars on a set of cheaper than cheap tires. Luckily it was closing so I set up a 3pm appointment the next day to have them mounted. In the meantime I did my Google search and did some price comparisons. I also started asking friends if they knew a good tire store.. In the end I found a great dealership in Delphos 13 miles outside Lima. He mounted and balanced the tires and upgraded the quality of tires for 165 dollars less than the big chain store. I took the receipt back to the chain store that claimed to be giving me a discount and told them what I thought. I got a song and dance about employing 12 employees and paying their insurance and a 12-thousand square foot facility that they have to heat. We have more overhead he claimed. It was all just a poor excuse to cover up they had been outed. It wasn't just 50 dollars differece...it was 165 dollars difference! Plus a better band name tire on my Jeep vs one of thse generic brand XXX tires. He then had the audacity to tell me that he could match the price of the other guy but I would need a quote on paper. That made me even more upset. I won't repeat what i said to the store manager, but if you would like to know,...just contact me. I'll also be glad to share the name of the Tire store.
If this wasn't enough, did I tell you my eye doctor wasn't even there. He sold the business in October but had been working part time up until last week in his old office? He never bothered to send me a letter to let me know he was retiring due to a medical conditions that made it impossible for him to continue his service. Nobody could tell me the rest of the story but offered me the services of the new owner. What are you going to do, say no?
So I spent 500 dollars on new eye wear, 500-dollars on new tires. And now it appears I'm going to be taxed an additional 2 percent because Congress can't get it together. Can I go back and continue my vacation? Yes vacation is over and now I get to deal with the real world again. Bah hum bug.... Happy New Year. Lets hope 2013 is my year.
LWT
I'll make a very long story short. Make sure to compare tire prices. Avoid the big chains. They had me convinced they were giving me a deal at 658 dollars on a set of cheaper than cheap tires. Luckily it was closing so I set up a 3pm appointment the next day to have them mounted. In the meantime I did my Google search and did some price comparisons. I also started asking friends if they knew a good tire store.. In the end I found a great dealership in Delphos 13 miles outside Lima. He mounted and balanced the tires and upgraded the quality of tires for 165 dollars less than the big chain store. I took the receipt back to the chain store that claimed to be giving me a discount and told them what I thought. I got a song and dance about employing 12 employees and paying their insurance and a 12-thousand square foot facility that they have to heat. We have more overhead he claimed. It was all just a poor excuse to cover up they had been outed. It wasn't just 50 dollars differece...it was 165 dollars difference! Plus a better band name tire on my Jeep vs one of thse generic brand XXX tires. He then had the audacity to tell me that he could match the price of the other guy but I would need a quote on paper. That made me even more upset. I won't repeat what i said to the store manager, but if you would like to know,...just contact me. I'll also be glad to share the name of the Tire store.
If this wasn't enough, did I tell you my eye doctor wasn't even there. He sold the business in October but had been working part time up until last week in his old office? He never bothered to send me a letter to let me know he was retiring due to a medical conditions that made it impossible for him to continue his service. Nobody could tell me the rest of the story but offered me the services of the new owner. What are you going to do, say no?
So I spent 500 dollars on new eye wear, 500-dollars on new tires. And now it appears I'm going to be taxed an additional 2 percent because Congress can't get it together. Can I go back and continue my vacation? Yes vacation is over and now I get to deal with the real world again. Bah hum bug.... Happy New Year. Lets hope 2013 is my year.
LWT
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