Bird’s eye view

By Joe McAdory

Got this photo from Opelika mayor Gary Fuller of construction work at the Opelika SportsPlex and Aquatic Center, which will be located not too far from the city’s industrial park on the northeast side of town.

The picture was taken by Ace Aerial Photo’s Joe Mazzone.

Narnia movie a two-hour swordfight

By Joe McAdory

Saw Narnia Prince Caspian the other night. I suppose it was pretty good, but wasn’t quite the flick the first Narnia movie was. To me, it seemed like a two-hour swordfight, a toughman competition with armour and perhaps a few minotaurs. That’s the last thing my 8-year-old needed, because he spent the rest of the weekend swordfighting an imaginary foe all over the house.

Bad things can happen to a house when children pretend to swordfight. Walls get scraped. Things get knocked over. Stuff like that. Thanks Hollywood. I’ll send you the bill.

Maybe I’ve been living in the dark ages, but I was stunned to see popcorn selling for $7. Seven bucks! And, of course, you can’t have the stuff without a drink, which will cost you another $4 or more. I suppose that’s the going rate at all movie theaters these days. I would smuggle in a big bucket of buttery popcorn, but I’d have a hard time sticking it beneath my shirt.

Turner Field very kid-friendly

By Joe McAdory

If you’re looking for a good time for the whole family, loading up the car and heading to Turner Field isn’t a bad option. Tickets can be had for reasonable prices—$6 in some parts of the upper deck. You could be nickel and dimed to death at concessions, but consume in moderation and perhaps fill up before you enter the stadium.

Turner Field is very family friendly and there isn’t a bad view in the house. There are gobs of things for kids to do: play for free at the Cartoon Network playhouse, play a number of baseball-related games that include pitching and hitting (for $2 each), or run the bases on top of the stadium beside the giant Coca-Cola bottle (pictured above, but you figured that out). For some reason, kids like to run. That’s fine. Let them run. Parents can watch the game from a railing over left field, or sit down and relax, while the kids wear themselves out.

One thing that’s neat is the Coke bottle itself. It’s decorated with bats, gloves, baseballs, catcher’s masks, and other gear. When the Braves hit a home run, fireworks shoot out the top of the bottle.

Realistically, a family of four can attend a game at Turner Field for about $50. Hey, that’s not much more than the movies.

Forecasting hurricane season tough to do

By Joe McAdory

Below is a link to a blog/story found on al.com regarding forecasts for the upcoming hurricane season, which is right around the corner. It’s not a bad idea today to go ahead and have supplies in your possession, rather than rush to the store at the last second and fight the crowds. More than likely, one day these supplies will come in hand.

But like preseason football and baseball season forecasts, many hurricane season forecasts aren’t always on target. Each year, weather dudes give an educated guess how many named storms there will be and how many will develop into major hurricanes and such. But do they really know? Here’s my prediction: there will be some named storms, there might be some major hurricanes and we may very well be effected. The best thing to do is be prepared if we are. And if not, go about our daily lives.

Perhaps the point of the preseason forecast really isn’t to give a true number of storms, but to remind folks that hurricane season is upon us.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2008/05/government_forecasters_expects.html

Power outage at Statehouse, figuratively and literally

By Joe McAdory

Reports out of Montgomery claim a squirrel found its way into a transformer and managed to cause a power outage at the Alabama Statehouse early Wednesday morning. Power remained out for most of the morning.

Only a few Statehouse employees were present and inconvenienced by the fluffy varmint. One report said the outage could have “been much worse” since the statehouse was filled with legislators Monday on the final day of the session. Been worse? It’s not like they accomplished anything Monday anyway. This year’s legislative session has been a power outage, of sorts.