Showing posts with label Sara. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sara. Show all posts

Monday, May 20, 2013

Tragedy in Oklahoma














A tornado tore through the small city of Moore, Oklahoma.  It's
a suburb of Oklahoma City.  We are always worried when we
hear of tornadoes in Oklahoma because we have family that
live there.  In this case, my nephew Matt works at Bob Moore
Ford (noted by the red circle on the map) which was only a
few miles north of the tornado's path.  This particular disaster
reminded me a bit of the earthquake a few years ago in
Christchurch, New Zealand.  Lynn was in the middle of the
Central Business District during the quake and Facebook
became a valuable tool to help find people.  My sister Terri,
who is in Indiana and me were both trying to find out if
Matt was ok and both of us were using Facebook.  Luckily
our friends Marta and Sara (who are originally from Norman)
are in Norman this week and were posting updates on Facebook.
I asked Marta if anyone had heard anything about the area around
Matt's dealership since at that time, we didn't know the path of
the tornado.  A friend of Marta's was able to report that her friend
worked at the same dealership, she had spoken to Matt's boss and
Matt was safe!  It turns out much of the area's cell phone and
internet was down due to the storm and Matt couldn't contact
anyone.  What a small world it is that a friend of a friend of a friend
was able to tell us Matt was ok.  As much as social media can be
a headache...in times like this, it turns out to be a great thing!

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Icestock 2010


Icestock is the traditional New Years-ish event that
takes place every year at McMurdo, featuring local
bands. Some with talent and others with, well, er,
attitude. It was held at the very inconvenient time
period for night workers of noon til 6pm. So not only
did we miss most (or all, for some) of it, we "got"
to hear it being played very loudly while we were
trying to sleep. However, I wanted to see at least
part of it, so I got out of bed at 5:00 (my morning)
and crawled out to the concert grounds. The last
group was playing (not my fav, but talented nonetheless)
and I got to catch up with friends. I found out
that the group with my friends Nathan, Tony and Sara
were playing later that evening at Gallagher's.
Inside instead of outside. I got there early, and
heard three other bands, including Phat Ass Bluegrass.
It was a nice change of pace and there were some
talented folks in the band including one playing
mandolin and one slide guitar. Made for an interesting
sound. Last up was "Stimulus Package", starring my
friends, and they didn't disappoint. Playing mostly
80's covers including some that were older than at least
half of the crowd there, they packed in the biggest
audience of the night and no one left disappointed.
Overall, I enjoyed this year's Icestock. Especially
since I got to see my favorites after all.