Smart phone? No thanks...

I remember how excited I was back in November of 2011.

I was getting a smart phone! Wow! I could get on the internet on my phone and do so many things with it!

The Craigman with a smart phone! I thought of all the hours of enjoyment the phone would bring and…then I got it.

I consider myself a fairly intelligent techno person. But the problems started early and continued. I had problems with the battery running out after approximately five hours, going over my allowed internet use when I didn’t use the internet.

Trish the wife complained about the extra cost, especially the overage. I paid around $200 for the phone, and soon after buying the device, saw the price drop to $100, and then even lower. Aargh.

And I figured out pretty quickly that I really did not enjoy looking at the internet on a small device when I typically was on the computer for some 10 hours a day already. If I needed to look something up on the internet, I could do it most of the time by walking into the office of LeFlore County Journal world headquarters or at work.

So the whole smart phone for a dumb Craig did not really work that great.

I received notice last month that I could upgrade my phone. I did, sort of, by downgrading my phone.

Now, I am probably one of the few people in history who have gone from a regular cell phone to a smart phone, and now dropped back to a regular cell phone.

My smart phone was good for calls and texting, which is primarily why I have a cell phone. I might be a tad bit dumb when it comes to smart phones, but I figured out I could probably do the same thing with a regular cell phone and not have to worry about going over my tiny allotment of internet time.

I went and got my new phone the other day, even received in some trade in for my old phone. Bonus, by gosh!

I had to sign a new extension and paid a whopping $1.06 for the phone. The battery life is much better. The reception in our house usually stinks (get that fixed AT&T!), but the new phone seems to get much better reception. I was able to take a call last night and not have to walk outside.

And, best of all, it wasn’t a hassle to get it done. I was actually able to talk to a person at the Best Buy Mobile store at the mall. I didn’t have to make a call, listen to all the voice mail prompts, try to understand an individual from some foreign country speaking jibberish English, or wait for the phone to arrive.

Very nice. Now, if I can just figure out how to make this phone work…

The alumni are coming!

Hundreds of new and old alumni will descend upon Heavener this hot weekend to catch up with old friends at the Heavener Alumni Reunion.

Every other summer the alumni get together for a street dance, parade, class parties and a banquet, thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people.

Our class held its 30^th reunion this past fall so I doubt there will be a lot of activity for the all-time greatest class at Heavener, the Class of 1981.

But it always amazes me what a big deal this is for a lot of people. Alumni travel from near and far, as in very far, to prove you can return home, at least for a short time.

Yeah, home has changed a lot over the years. But the memories are still there of snake dances, Liberty Theater, cruising from one end of downtown and back, football games, teachers, events and so much more.

Once again, grads will return to a place that helped make them what they are. They will see all the changes at the school, cruise through town and remember when this was here and that was there, and think back to spending some of the best years of their lives in this little town at the base of Poteau Mountain.

I have been fortunate to meet a lot of people over the years, and some of them I consider friends. But my closest friends have always been, and will be, those who once wore the purple and gold and knew the words to Allegiance to old Heavener High and wondered what exactly High-rickety-whoop-dee-do actually meant.

So welcome back all you other ex-Wolves and I hope you enjoy your return home.

Go vote!

Go vote!

Now, not later. And certainly not when and if you get around to it.

An individual’s right to vote is one of the biggest privileges we have.

People have died so we have the right to vote for who we want to represent us in our government.

And still, the voter turnout is usually low.

That is a shame. I have been guilty of this, as well, at times when the election did not seem important or I didn’t care about the question or the candidates.

But no more.

If there is an election, I will do my best to vote starting today.

You can vote from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at your local precinct. It doesn’t matter if you are a supporter of only one candidate or have a good grasp on all the elections.

Go vote.

We have the opportunity to vote for who will possibly represent us in the state house, a congressman, sheriff and county clerk and more, depending on where you live in our fine county

No governor or president, but it is still an important election.

I will be casting my vote during my lunch hour, unless somehow I can get around to it before going to work.

Hopefully, a lot of county residents will take advantage of this opportunity and let their voice and vote be heard.

This is the first of possibly three elections spanning the rest of 2012. There could be a runoff election in August with the general election in November.

And remember to take some form of identification, either a state or government issued identification or your voter card.

We will post updates from the election board as the results start coming in on the Journal’s Facebook page so you can get updates as they are reported.

Let's golf...in 107 degrees?

I found out Friday I get to play in the Poteau Chamber of Commerce golf tournament today.

Yes!

I do enjoy my golf, especially the better tournaments such as the Chamber’s golf outing.

This morning, I was updating the weather forecast for the Journal.

Going to be sunny, okay, kind of expected that.

No chance of rain, always a good sign when one is going to hit the links.

Hmm, let’s see about the temperature…107!

Egad! Is that a typo? Has some weather dude, or dudess messed up. Negative.

That 107 degrees, ladies and gents, will set a new record for June 25.

I don’t know that I have ever golfed when it is 107 degrees. Last year when it got so hot, I traded in the golf for air conditioning.

Of course, it will be cooler up on Wolf Mountain.

Right?

Good breeze, can’t forget about that. But then again, since it is up on a mountain, wouldn’t it be warmer since we are closer to the sun?

I have already planned for my attack against the heat. Cool clothes, hat, ice, lots of water, and seek out shade at every opportunity.

My choice of liquid refreshment has changed to water. And lots of it. No heat stroke for Craig!

What happened to the milder summer? I’m extremely sorry, but 107 degrees in June is not mild in any shape or form.

The poor yard is already parched. Heck, I even started watering last night to try and save the grass. Typically, I just let it die so I don’t have to mow.

I fear if this is a teaser of things to come, there isn’t enough water in Wister Lake, or its tributaries, to save our grass.

Fortunately, the forecast calls for cooler temperatures on Tuesday. Cooler as in 102 degrees. I doubt that will bring out the return of a jacket.

Send us your scores

With the summer slowdown firmly set upon us, I have been spending quite a bit of time adding old football scores to my new website oksportsreview.com.

I had a bunch of scores from county schools and others from around the state last year when I had to shut the site down.

Now, I am rebuilding all the information and I could use your help.

I have not posted them yet, but do have all the football scores from county teams back to 2004. I have Poteau’s scores posted back to then. Here is the link to the section on high school football scores

I have more scores from Heavener than any other school, since I once did research and came up with most of the scores going back to the 1930s. You can see the Heavener scores I have posted HERE.

I have the scores posted back to 1990 as I write this, but have several years missing. I am going to post all the information I have from Heavener before starting on the other schools.

So, I need your help. If you have scores from any of the county or state teams, please send an email to craig@oksportsreview.com.

Eventually, I hope to have scores posted for all the state schools, although that will take a lot of time and help.

If you see a year, or game missing, please let me know. I would also appreciate it if you would pass this on to any friends who might have this information.

I continue to post the top Oklahoma sports stories every day on the site, but the old football scores will probably be the most popular part of the website.

Also, if you have old pictures from football games, please send them along also. I do have some pictures from a bunch of old Heavener games and players, but would like to have them from other schools as well.

Let the people, er, candidates speak!

Despite the obvious Thunder obstacle, the political forum went on as planned Thursday and a good crowd flocked into the Reynolds Center to see and listen to local, state and national candidates.

Prior to the start of the forum, I mentioned to a couple of friends that at approximately 7:50 p.m., it would look like Moses parted the Red Sea as the crowd disappeared in search of a television to watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Thunder and the Heat.

We did lose a few, but most of the crowd stayed for the entire forum.

And they got a final look and chance to listen to many of the candidates running for positions in the upcoming Primary Election on June 26.

We got to hear some good speakers…and some that were not as polished.

Candidates talked about the usual hot button topics like jobs, taxes, water and the like.

The current office holders talked about the progress that had been made during their terms while those seeking the office preferred to look forward.

For the most part, it was a civil evening. Nobody nodded off, at least no snores could be heard from the audience.

One of the best parts of the evening was hearing Pansy Kidd student Talynn Barnes sing the National Anthem.

Then, we got to meet the candidates as they all gave a short introduction and asked for our vote.

There seemed to be a general consensus among 99.9 percent of the candidates that more and better jobs are needed, that big government is BAD, water in southeastern Oklahoma needs to stay here and not be sold or given to Texas or Oklahoma City, the economy is not all that great and nobody likes or wants to burden the good people of southeastern Oklahoma with more taxes.

We got to hear candidates for county clerk, county commissioner in District 2, county sheriff, state senate, state representative and congress.

All the candidates were given a chance to introduce themselves. Only those candidates who are involved with the Primary Election answered questions from the panel consisting of representatives from the Poteau Daily News and Sun, Oklahoma Welcome, LeFlore County Journal, Spiro Graphic and Heavener Ledger.

The event was put on by the Poteau Chamber of Commerce and the PDNS, while Central National Bank was gracious enough to sponsor the event.

Former state senator Kenneth Corn was the emcee for the event while James Smith did a good job timing the speakers.

Political forum tonight

The political forum will be held Thursday at the new Reynolds Center in Poteau.

This is the third forum that I have helped “moderate”.

There were two of them during the last rash of elections two years ago.

Kudos to the Poteau Chamber of Commerce and Poteau Daily News for organizing the event and to Central National Bank for sponsoring it.

I expect most of the candidates running for local office, along with the state representative and even some of the Congressional candidates will honor us with their presence.

This is a really good way to compare the apples to apples (or candidates vs. the other candidates).

All the candidates will be given a chance to introduce themselves and answer questions that have been submitted by the citizens.

During the last forums, we took questions from the audience, but that was not real easy to do. Of course, we did get some off-the-wall questions. I was the question booter last time. Hopefully this will have been done prior to the forum this time.

This will be one of the last times for the voters to listen to the candidates prior to the June 26 Primary Election.

The thing I like about these forums is you get a chance to see the candidates grouped together. We can gauge how well they speak, appearance and their knowledge of things the voters are interested in.

If it is anything like the last forums, some of the candidates will be well prepared while one or two might get caught with the old deer in the headlights look.

The forum starts at 6:30 p.m., which gives us roughly an hour and 30 minutes before the crowd disappears to check out the Thunder in the NBA finals.

I think it would be interesting to throw in some really wacko questions like if you were an animal, which animal would you be?

But I doubt the other media representatives would go for that.

So check it out tonight and get a look at our future leaders.