My weekend

Friday - Traveled to Lindale to watch Pine Tree play Lindale. Pine Tree totalled all of 99 yards of offense, blew a 15-7 halftime lead, and fell 29-15.

Sent my story from the LaQuinta in Lindale right off I-20. Got back to the office and didn't hang around long because I had volunteered (for some reason) to work news side Saturday with Ike making landfall and heading northward into the glorious ArkLaTex.

Stayed up until about 2:20 a.m., wanting to see Ike make landfall before I went to bed.

Saturday - Woke up at 5:45 a.m. Checked the weather. Ike was still a good ways away, which I expected. Got back in bed about 6:15, planning to sleep another hour before getting up, preparing for work, and start a day of weather coverage, something news side always wants me for since I'm such a weather nerd.

6:25 a.m. - I realize I ain't goin' back to sleep. Nevertheless, I stay in bed for another half hour, holding out dim hopes I can pass out again before going to the office. No such luck.

At about 7 a.m., I get out of bed with a surge of adrenaline. I assume the anticipation of the day's events has my engine running already. I take a quick shower, put on a long-sleeve short that I don't button up, and a pair of shorts. I went to work in an unbuttoned shirt and shorts. That's a Longview News-Journal first. Not only that, nobody gave me crap about it. I'm such a beast.

I get some McDonald's breakfast, go to the office, make a quick call to the National Weather Service office in Shreveport. I can tell the meteorologist I talked to doesn't wanna be bothered repeatedly that day. So, I never call him back. You don't have to when you're covering weather. The NWS Shreveport forecast office Web site has everything you need if you have any clue what you're doing.

I work from 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Without stopping.

Fourteen hours.

Straight.

Twenty-nine Talk of East Texas blog entries.

Ike updates. SWEPCO updates. Cool weather links for the public.

To sum up the day, it was a sports writer being an absolute weather news beast for 14 hours non-stop. Right as I'm about to leave, Longview PD calls and says the water rationing was called off. It's the exclamation point to a day of beasthood. My modesty was the best part about it.

Twelve hours of overtime. Fifty-two-hour week. Big paycheck comin' next Friday. Jackpot. (Well, as big as a three-year veteran sports writer can get working for a 30K circ. shop.)

Those 60-plus-mph wind gusts were fierce. It was cool to witness, but it wasn't cool what Ike did. Driving home, I realize that much of Longview is without power. Much of Longview meaning major intersections without traffic lights, residential areas looking post-Apocalyptic. I can't imagine what Katrina looked like in New Orleans. A weakened Ike 250 miles from the coast was enough for me.

Having only gotten a combined 10 hours of sleep during the past two nights, I go to bed about 1:20 a.m. and slip into a coma.

Sunday - Get up at 10:20 a.m. for church at Mobberly Baptist. I get there and hardly any cars are in the lot. We probably have 2,000 people during the 11 o'clock service usually. Sunday, there may have been 200. It was weird. But it was good. Church is always awesome. Mobberly was home for about 140 evacuees, and it was good to see some of them going to the service so Pastor Glynn Stone could reassure them that our church was there for them. As usual, church was a blessing.

I leave church, call the folks in Carthage. They can't get food anywhere because there's only a couple of places open and there are lines going down streets trying to get in. I pick up Golden Chick and head southeast for the homeland.

Eat chicken, okra, and gravy for lunch. Does it get any better? Watch football. Act stupid with my 17-year-old brother and 54-year-old dad. Good times. Drive around and see storm damage in Carthage. Pretty bad stuff. Panola canceled classes for Monday, but CISD is having school for some reason. Oh, yeah, because it's run by incompetence, no matter who's calling the shots. I forgot there for a second.

Come back to Longview around midnight. South side is still without power. Intersections at Estes Parkway and I-20 still out, as well as HG Mosley/McCann and HG Mosley/Bill Owens. Crazy stuff.

Watch some TV. Read on the Internet. Post this.

I'm about to go to bed. It's 5:23 a.m. About my usual bed time. Tomorrow's slate: Pine Tree football practice, high school football capsules for Friday's weekly Zone tab, talks with PT and Kilgore coaches for preview stories.

Long weekend. But eventful. I'm out.

P.S. - I'll try to remember to post my weekly (Wednesday) college football columns here. By the way, SEC has five of the top 10 in the AP poll. Get on the SEC's level, y'all.