lanny's Blog

The weather made a mess out of rush hour and all morning I kept telling viewers they'll need to adjust their drive times to make it in on time.  Question?  How much extra time do you give yourself when the weather's bad?

.that's right, Erin got a shin-splint from watching the marathon  so I am in all week. LOL  Actually she is taking some time off  so you have me every morning.  And may I say once again   GAWD  5 am is  awfully early  for so much information. 

   Getting up at  2:30  was  depressing.  I really wanted to stay in bed, but alas.........drive safely or you'll wind up on one of my reports!!!!!

OK,

     Anyone who watched the 7 o'clock hour of the news this morning  CLEARLY  saw me  stumbling around  not knowing I was on tv.  I missed the announcement that SkyFox wouldn't be in  that break and so John Dawson  tosses to me and I am fooling around not paying attention.  In television it's the equivalent of  being caught with your pants down around your ankles. 

    While I'm trying to recover the entire news room  breaks  out in riotous laughter!!!!   So I now told the crew that whenever I am going to be on tv they have to say "  Lanny, you are on tv  right now, and people can see you."  That ought to help wouldn't you say? 

Here is my question:

Are you a rubbernecker?   Do you slow down to look at  an accident?

So can everyone who is up watching us  tell me  where you are going this morning and about how long it takes you to get there? 

    Just tell me if you are in Sugarland and you work in the Med Center  or you're in Kingwood and you work downtown.  That sort of stuff. 

I just want to know who is up and why they need traffic info  at 5 am, and also tell me if the information helps you out.

Thanks,  just curious!

OK, I am filling in for Erin who is on vacation and here is my Traffic Blog  question of the day. 

  When you are driving to work do you listen to  commercial radio or satellite radio? 

  Feel free to throw in the name of the show or station you listen to and whether it's AM or FM too. 

That's my question.  I'll read the results tomorrow morning in the 8 o'clock hour!

Have you ever gotten up out of bed and then realized it was your day off?  That's the topic in the studio this morning.  It has happened to me more times than I care to mention but the scenario goes something like this. 

    I wake up at some ungodly hour, fall down the staircase and throw the light on in the kitchen.  I slapped some breakfast together, sit down and eat, and then head for the shower.  At that point my wife,  awake from the noise  walks into the bathroom and tells me, "Lanny, it's Saturday!"      In stunned disbelief I almost can't believe my ears and then rapidly jumped back in bed and hopefully go back to sleep hoping to forget I even got up on my day off! 

    And you????

So my question of the day has to do with the umbrella.  Isci keeps saying to take your umbrella today because of the rain, so here's my question.  Do YOU really take your  umbrealla when the weather guy says so or  are you more likely to forget you rumbrella all over town so you just don't even bother  taking it out?  

    I fall in the latter of the group.  If I take an umbreall to work, then I spend the rest of the day hauling it around.  Out of my truck, into the newsroom, out to the photog truck, on location, back in the truck, to lunch, then back to my desk.  Invariably I walk off and leave it somewhere and I'm tired of losing umbrellas.  What's your take?

OK bloggers,

     Erin Anthony is on vacation and so I am the Traffic Diva in her absence.  Here are some observations from being in the studio with the troups here at Fox.  Mike Iscovitz, PattieShieh, Tom Zizka, and Jose are all hard working dedicated  broadcasters who know their stuff....................however, (  and that's when things  change, like  I  do like you as a friend  however, just not as a boyfriend )    during the 4 hour morning newcasts  these guys behave strangely between breaks. 

  I have learned that Pattie is actually responding to blogs throughout the morning news!  

Tom kept telling me to slow  down and not talk so fast cause I was so excited that I was racing along this morninig at break neck speeds, so he's coaching me between live shots, and Isci actually  called  the FoxRad an unflattering name.  Shocking.  Isci suggested that FoxRad wasn't really his  best friend and that he actually thinks FoxRad is holding out on him.  Strange relationship but that's weather people for ya. 

   Jose was fast  on his feet this morning when a light bulb  burst over heard and sent  sharreds of  hot glass down on his arm.  All this happened while Pattie  was sitting next  to him plowing along with the news.  Interesting. 

     Our floor people  Caroline and Mikey were swift on their feet dashing scripts out and blotting my brow down from the beads of sweat  that  peaked through my flesh this morning. 

  In the end, no one was injured here and later MyTechGuy interviewed me for the first ever  video blog  that will posted later  today.  Not bad for a Monday, in fact this has been the most productive Monday I have spent in years!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Transportation Secretary Norm Minetta is in town to address the tranportation issues in Houston.  He says there will be an additional 2 million more people living here by the year 2020.  And once again our roads aren't up to the challenge.  Well, when have they ever been up for it?  

  I'm going to sound like every other native Houstonian who says  I have lived here all my life and have never gone down a road with out a construction barrel on it somewhere.  I've seen so many barrels I half expect a rodeo clown to start popping out of them. 

   The Gulf Fwy has been under construction since before World War II.  We beat the Nazi's, freed Europe, leveled Japan and rebuilt a new civilization there and never finished the road work between downtown and Galveston.  We have been through Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm and never took down the  "  alternate lane blockage "    signs   along the feeder roads   around  the Friendswood/Clear Lake area of 45.  What's the deal?  

    In the late  80's  Houstonians got so fed up with  " total closures "  on main lanes of freeways that the highway department began working crews 24  hours a day and that still hasn't  been enough to stay ahead of the growth here. 

  Note to self:  Next life time  get a job with the highway department, they are NEVER without work!