Friday, January 30, 2009

Ice Storm (Day 3)

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As the sun set on the third day of the ongoing disaster now known as the "Ice Storm of 2009" my family joined the thousands of other NWA residents without electricity. At 4 p.m. on Thursday melting ice falling from the trees on my circle drive caused a power transformer to arc and trip a nearly breaker, thus cutting our power for the evening. Of course I still had to go and shoot Arkansas' basketball game against Alabama in Fayetteville. When I returned home after midnight I found my wife and daughter huddled near the fireplace in the living room of home. Our house if 100% electric, so our only source of heat was from our fireplace. Let me tell you, a conventional fireplace is very inefficient at heating a basic room. I froze my butt off last night and caught very little sleep as I was continually waking to stoke the fire and add more wood. By morning we had only a few logs of dry wood left and I was fearful of the thought of having to go another night without power. As luck would have it, actually I think it was a prayer being answered, a Carroll Electric utility crew pulled into our circle a little after 9:00 a.m. and we had power within 20 minutes. I know we have been very lucky this week and I am grateful for it. After spending just one night without electricity it really puts into perspective what so many in my area have been enduring since late Monday and early Tuesday. I want to say I hope this nightmare ends soon, but I'm sure we'll be seeing the effects of the ice storm for several weeks to come.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Ice Beauty

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Here are a few beauty shots from the Ice Storm of 2009. These are some personal enterprise shots of my own.

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Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Ice Storm (Day 2)

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It's now Day 2 of the 2009 Ice Storm and by the grace of God we still have power at our home in Bella Vista. Most of my co-workers that live in Fayetteville haven't had power since yesterday and The Morning News' building in Springdale is also still without power. There was no paper printed last night for today's edition and there wouldn't be one tomorrow if not for the gracious offer from our competition, The Democrat-Gazette, to print our Wednesday and Thursday editions for us. I've heard of competing papers sharing presses in the gulf states in the wake of hurricanes. It's really cool that, in light of the ongoing newspaper war here in NWA, differences can be set aside and adversaries can help one another get the job done. Thanks Dem-Gaz!

I spent today doing the same thing I did yesterday, enterprising around finding photos related to the ice storm. I found a better variety of photos today compared to yesterday. The lead photo is a Bentonville Electric Department crew working on repairing downed power lines.

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Sledding at Country Club Golf Course in Bella Vista. The combination of light snow on top of more than an inch of hard ice made for perfect sledding conditions. I even broke out my Yankee Clipper sled in my basement when I got home from work and tried out the hill in my backyard. Let's just say I have bruises and I'll leave it at that.

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A restaurant manager in Bentonville knocks icicles off of a neighboring business' awning.

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More utility repair work.

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A neighborhood street in Bentonville.

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Hopefully things will be somewhat back to normal by this weekend. We are very fortunate to still have power here in Bella Vista when you consider all of the trees in our area. Of course we didn't get as much ice as Fayetteville and Springdale did. Yes, we were lucky.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ice Storm (Day 1)

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I spent the day enterprising looking for feature art relating to the wonderful ice storm we've endured today in Northwest Arkansas. Ice fall varied from between a half an inch to more than an inch across the NWA area. It's being billed as "The Worst In A Decade." As bad as it is, you can't deny the beauty of a landscape coated in ice. Well, that is until your power goes out or you total your vehicle on the treacherous roads.

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A Bentonville resident works carefully with a hammer to open the door of a friend's vehicle.

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A Bentonville utility worker knocks ice off of tree limbs hanging too close to power lines.

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A family from Rogers settles into a Salvation Army shelter in Bentonville after abandoning their home when their electricity went out.

My family and I are fortunate that as of 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening we still have electricity. Thousands of residents in our area are without power and I'm sure more outages are yet to come before this is all over. We're crossing our fingers and praying we still have electricity when we wake up in the morning. The lights have flickered several times tonight, but no outage.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Show Off & Pissed Off

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Arkansas' high energy freshman point guard Courtney Fortson has adopted a pregame ritual ala Lebron James you may have seen on a television commercial in recent days featuring the god-like NBA star. The chalk toss, actually I don't know if it's chalk or talcum powder, was cool when the Hogs were winning basketball games. But they've dropped four straight SEC games and are now in the basement in the west. Fortson, who is a VERY talented basketball player, needs to drop the pregame showboating and get back to playing at the level that earned him the "Mr. Basketball" honor in high school in Alabama.

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I'm sure that's exactly what's going through Pel's mind these days concerning Fortson. I feel for coach Pelphrey. How frustrating it must be to go from media and fans comparing you to Nolan Richardson after beating OU and Texas to dropping the next four straight to average and below average teams. Oddly enough this team is on track to end up exactly where they were expected to finish the season in preseason polls, dead last in the west. Keep your chin up coach. You're doing all you can with this bunch. They've got the potential for greatness, just not this season.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Walter Ward Henning Sr.

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This is my grandfather, Walter Ward Henning Sr., the father of my father, Walter Ward Henning Jr. He has many other names, Wally, Daddy, Mr. Henning. But for all of my life I’ve known him simply as “Papaw,” which I still call him to this day, although more often now I refer to him as “Pop” — a term I picked up from my cousins a few years back (I guess “Papaw” was a bit too childish of a term to use as a grown man). He is 84-years-old now and has been doing upholstery for 59 years.

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My grandfather began his career in Dyersburg, Tenn., in 1949 at Karpen & Brothers Upholstery. In the 60’s he started working for George Golden Interior Designs, which decorated Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. My grandfather upholstered several pieces of Elvis’ furniture — he actually used some leftover gold material used for Elvis’ furniture to make belts for my father and a cousin (Man I wish I knew where that belt was today). In 1963 he received his upholstery business license and opened Henning Upholstery on Peabody Avenue in Memphis. He would move to one more location on Cooper Street before settling in the early 70’s into 4144 Maime Road, the only place I have known Henning Upholstery to ever exist.

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Growing up I spent many of my younger days during the summer at “Papaw’s Shop.” It was a fun place to hang out at and a boring place all at the same time. The shop was filled with all kinds of neat things for a boy to entertain himself with. There is a vice on his work bench that I must have crushed hundreds of furniture tacks with. And his air stapler was the coolest. You could shoot staples into the wall from across the room. Of course these things would get old real fast and I would spend a lot of time staring at the clock wishing the time by. Of course my grandfather did have a television in his shop, but all I remember him ever watching on it was PTL and The 700 Club (not very entertaining for an 8-year-old).

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I spent about an hour with my grandfather at his shop during a visit to Memphis this past week. I wanted to take some photos of him working. Something for the family to have as a remembrance of his legacy after he retires, although he says he’s never going to retire. He was working on the tackiest set of furniture that has ever passed through the doors of his shop. A pair of chairs and a couch that his customer wanted covered in zebra print fabric. That’s right, Zebra print. He had already finished the couch and was working on finishing the chairs. The entire job was one big frustration for him. It had become his albatross. I could see why he didn’t want to retire yet. Would you want to end a 59 year career on a matching set of zebra striped furniture? I understood completely.

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The first thing that stikes you when you walk into my grandfather’s shop is how old everything is. The place has a very used, worn in feel to it and most things are covered with a fine layer of dust. He is using a lot of the same tools today that he was using when I was a child. He has tack hammers he still uses daily that I know are older than I am. This is a place of hard work, of dedication. It’s an example I strive to live by, but one that is hard to match. I don't think many from my generation and beyond know what a real hard day's work is.

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My grandfather is truly of a dying breed. There aren't many out there today that are willing to put in the time and effort to learn a trade that requires not just hard work, but patience and perseverance. Everyone these days has a "get paid today" mentality as my grandfather puts it. Besides, these days most people will throw out an old couch or chair and buy a new one rather than pay hundreds of dollars to have it re-upholstered and restored to like-new condition. Out with the old, in with the new. Right? Not so much in this case.

Years from now we'll wish there were more like you around Pop. Thank you for the lessons you taught me. Your words, your hard work and your faith will always reside within me, even after you've retired. I'm as proud of you as a grandson can be and I love you Papaw.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Arkansas 67, No. 7 Texas 61

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Arkansas downed their second Top 10 Big 12 team on Tuesday in front of 19,012 rabid Hog fans at Bud Walton Arena. I'm sure there were a few Texas fans scattered amongst the crowd but you sure couldn't hear them above the home crowd noise.

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Brandon Moore and Jason Henry fighting under the board with a couple of Texas' big men.

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Courtney Fortson had his fifth double-double of the season against the Longhorns with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

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Coach John Pelphrey wore a RED sport coat to the game to "Make sure everyone knows which side I'm on." LOUD and clear coach!

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Former Razorback wide receiver Marcus Monk put in some solid minutes against Texas.

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Michael Washington is the man. He scored a game-high 22 points against Texas and this game-sealing dunk on Texas' Damion James with 22 seconds left was all over SportCenter's highlight reels.

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Stefan Welsh had 20 points against Texas and continued to show he is a major component of this Razorback basketball team. Rotnei Clarke isn't the only one on the team that can hit three pointers at will.

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More Fortson on the inside.

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Washington hits a big three pointer with under 10 minutes in the game.

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The X factor for Arkansas' 43 game, non-conference winning streak at Bud Walton Arena is the fans. The place was so loud in the final minutes of the game your ears just went to static. I've never heard an indoor crowd get that loud before. Ever.

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Of course the biggest reason for the intensity of the noise is the average Hog fan's primal hatred of Texas. Having grown up in Oklahoma and now being an Arkansas fan myself I certainly have no love for the Longhorns either. "Horns Down!"

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If the Razorbacks (12-1) can beat Mississippi State (10-5) at home on Saturday they will break into the national top 20 standings. Which would be an amazing feat for a team that was expected to finish at the bottom of the SEC this season.

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And Jason, D.J. Williams was mugging for Hawgs Illustrated ya know. :)

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Cover Catchup

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Fell behind on posting the past two HI covers. Hawgs Illustrated Volume 17, Issue 20 and Volume 18, Issue 1 (respectively).