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I just wanted to say hello. It's been a while since I checked in. I thought I'd say "Hi!" I'm still around, for the time being. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 virus is pretty scary. I'm self isolating and social distancing as much as I can. I'm not sure how all this will turn out in the end. I am almost finished with a big work project that I'm pretty excited about. I'm at home this week, but I have to work next week. I'll finish it up. After that, I'm not sure what will happen. Stay safe everyone. Keep your distance from others. Take this situation seriously. Don't horde items. This sucks, but it's necessary. Otherwise, our hospital and healthcare system won't be able to handle the sudden influx of patients.

This year has had ups and downs, like every year. I hope yours was mostly ups. Keeping it somewhat short and sweet, I'm going to have a lot of work to juggle starting Thursday. Hopefully I can keep up with it all. Happy 2020 everyone!

Greetings! It's been a long two and a half months since I last updated this blog. Professionally, I'm almost in the middle of my "Perspectives" season for this fall. One of the other shows I direct, "I Want Answers" is also well into its recording season. The music show that I've worked on the past two years, "Studio 66" will finally air in February of 2020. Basketball season comes up starting in December, and "Film Noir" recording will return in January. I have another big project I'm working on, well, was working on. It's on hold due to legal reasons. I was hoping for a December release date, but that won't happen yet. I should work more on my personal video business. I'm currently distracted by bicycling. I need to shoot the project that I have on the table soon. Personally, lots has happened and I won't go into all of it. I was blindsided with a situation recently, and I've just now figured out the best course of action to avoid that happening again. It was a learning experience. In other news, at the end of August, I had surgery to correct a defect with my eyelids and brow. My eyelids, especially the right one, would often just hang in my field of vision. I still have faint bruises from the procedure that just won't leave. I have a follow up coming up with the surgeon. I tried to do my best to take a "Selfie a Day" to show the progress of my healing. In good news, Jason and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary yesterday. He's a great, funny guy. We spent last week in Kentucky riding bicycles in the LBL area. That was fun. I need the exercise. In bad news, my aunt Pam who had pancreatic cancer, and beat the cancer, died of complications of the treatment on September 25th in Milwaukee, several hundred miles away from her home. I took a couple of days off from work to travel the 775 miles by car from Tulsa to Milwaukee and back. I arrived a bit to late to have a conversation with her, she was resting fairly peacefully while I sat in her room. I saw her two days before she passed. Pam traveled to Milwaukee to have a procedure done to relieve fluid buildup in her abdomen. Soon after the procedure, she had a series of strokes and internal bleeding at the same time. One couldn't be treated without making the other worse. I didn't know what else to do, but create a video that was shared at the funeral about her life. The rest of the family said it meant so much to them. I'm glad I was able to do something. Watch the video to learn more about Pam. By the way, The Medical College of Wisconsin is working on finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. They are studying her case to try to help other people. I'll end this by reminding you to be kind to others. Take care of your loved ones. You may not have as many days left as you think. #Death #PancreaticCancer #PamelaJones #Mayfield #KY #MayfieldKY #LBL #MedicalCollegeofWisconsin #Research

I've been very busy this summer. I have been directing and editing a music show. I hope to be finished with the main edits either this afternoon, or tomorrow. I'm getting things ready for season 14 of the show I produce/direct. So far, I've found several guests! If you are in the Tulsa area, feel free to send me suggestions. I need enough guests for 31 shows. Sorry for the short post, I need to get back to work.

Some of you can probably relate to this. I probably shouldn't use the actual wireless companies names because I don't want them to sue me, even though I tell the truth. On April 12th, I became aware that I was not getting all of my SMS messages. I thought it was just a problem between Jason and me, and it would clear itself up. On Sunday, I received a text message a student sent me on Thursday the 11th. Monday, I realized I wasn't getting all of my bosses's texts. On Tuesday, I took a break and chatted with "Wireless A." We tried all sorts of things, but nothing worked. My husband and I chatted again that evening, and nothing worked. They finally blamed my iPhone. Wednesday, I chatted with Apple (They were helpful, so I'll leave their name in here). I went as far as to roll back iOS on my phone, turn off iMessage, reset everything and my problem persisted. If Jason sent me 1-0 one at a time, I might get 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 0. No pattern, rhyme or reason. My sister could send me texts more or less OK, but my boss could not. Apple was puzzled, so I made a genius bar appointment for Thursday night. On Thursday, I went to the Apple store, and I showed them my problem by having people text me, then send a screenshot what they sent me through Facebook Messenger. They were puzzled. My iPhone X did have a slight screen defect, so they replaced it with an iPhone XS Max (I did have to pay some extra for the newer phone.) Once we got it up and running, the problem persisted, and they started taking notes. They told me to tell Wireless A to reprovision my account and that should fix it. They also replaced my SIM card just in case. I got home Thursday night, and spent about four hours on the phone with Wireless A, and nothing worked. Their conclusion is that it was my iPhone, but they would send it to their engineers and get back to me. They never did. Jason and I decided Monday to go to the Wireless A store, and see someone in person. The guy that with us was with us flat out said it was my phone. Once again I disabled iMessage, yes we disabled it online as well, and we put my SIM into a Galaxy S9. The problem still persisted. The lady the guy would go talk with was extremely rude, and said it's still Apple's problem. At this point, I knew it wasn't. They finally said "We are a sales store, not a service store, you need to call or chat with Wireless A." I told them we had wasted something like 10-15 hours of our own time chatting with them already, and working with Apple. Wireless A said they would get back to me, but after a week and a half, they never did. The lady said again"It's an Apple problem." I then said, "Well, we're going to go to the Wireless B store then." The rude lady said "The problem will follow you there too." We drove over to "Wireless B" and they were quite friendly. We were unsure of coverage close to our home, so they loaned us a phone so we could see if it worked. It worked there, and at work. Tuesday night, I received a bunch of old text messages, 46 to be exact, on my Wireless A phone. But, new texts were still sometimes not going through. Wednesday, we returned the phone to Wireless B and signed up with their plan. Guess what. I was able to text again. I lost whatever texts were stuck with Wireless A, but now SMS works as intended. There was some problems porting over my hotspot number, but Wireless B took care of it after they were aware. Wireless B is more expensive by a bit than Wireless A, but hopefully this is a case of "You Get What You Pay For." I was told at the Wireless B store if chat and phone support doesn't work, they will work with me if I come in with a crazy problem that's out of my hands. They also told me that they can fix SMS problems like the one I had without as much trouble. Anyway, that along with work projects and some things I have to do to take care of myself have left me overly stressed this month. I hope you don't mind that I used this blog post for a bit of venting. I would like to give kudos for Apple for being patient with me, and trying to help me, even though it turned out it wasn't their problem.

I don't have a lot of time to update the blog, but I wanted you to know that I've been busy. Trying to get a project off the ground. I have one in progress, even though I lost another one that I really wanted to do. I'm hoping to get to work with the drone more often. I took it up yesterday to look for springtime colors, and did not come back with a lot, except some green. You get to have a decent look at the Osage Hills though. Last month, I finished a very good piece about Michael Wallis, and it has been very well received. In case you were not able to see it, or missed that it was on, here is the show for you. I have a couple of big projects coming up in May. One if it comes to pass, will have me editing a big part of the summer. I also had to postpone a piece I hoped to get out this season for "Perspectives." I still need more cover video and a couple of sound bites to finish that project. Anyway, I hope everything has gone well with you. Our cats and dog are doing well. Jason and I have been doing a bit of never ending work on the house. See you next time! #MichaelWallis #Drone #JAEDS #JADESLLC #OsageHills #Spring2019 #Perspectives

My apologies for not checking in sooner. I've been busy between the holidays, and getting right into basketball, plus getting back into my show. I did take a Saturday morning a couple of weekends ago to get a watercolor lesson from my friend Monte Toon. My husband, Monte, and I painted "The Blue Whale of Catoosa." Click on the photo for a larger version. If you like it, prints are available. Speaking of Monte Toon, those of you who follow me on social media are aware that I did a special on him that aired in December. If you missed it, you can see it here: I did another painting of some leaves on my own, and I feel "Eh" about that one. Uhura is quite feisty. She has a lot of energy. She loves to play by biting, and we are making strides in stopping that. Anyway, I have a couple of special shows in progress, and still trying to work on a side project after basketball is done. See you next time. #BlueWhaleofCatoosa #MonteToon #Perspectives #Uhura #Cat #Leaves

Yesterday, we had to say goodbye to our 18 year old cat, Telly. Telly has been a part of my life since 2003, when my late husband and I rescued her from the parking lot of KTUL-TV. She was "Mom" to any new face we brought home. Most recently, Nicki treated her like Mom, and the two cuddled a lot over the summer. Within the past month, Telly started to paw at her mouth a bit when she would eat. We thought she was getting food stuck. It turns out, it was a mass. Thursday, she started leaving her tongue out, and started drooling. It was worse by Saturday, so we took her to the vet, and they said she had a mass, probably cancer, and it would grow quickly. They thought she had some inflammation and swelling in her mouth as well, so they gave us some medication to help with that. Sunday morning, she wanted to eat and drink, but we realized that she couldn't get her mouth open at all to eat and drink. The mass had sealed her mouth shut overnight. We decided we were not going to let her starve to death, that would be a painful way to go, so we had her put to sleep yesterday. She was happy and purring until the end. She lived from 2000 - 2018. When we went to the shed to get the cat carrier out Saturday, there was a young gray cat that was in our back yard. She ran into the old barn, and we managed to coax her out. She's actually very friendly. We took her into the vet in a separate carrier with Telly on Saturday. Her blood and poo tests came back normal. No microchip. She was probably dumped in the area, people dump unwanted animals here all the time. We were going to foster her until we can find a good home, but I think we might be attached. I decided to name her Uhura. We tried keeping her in a dog crate so the other cats and her don't fight. Somehow, last night, she managed to escape the dog crate twice. The crate was still closed, so I have no idea how she did it. She escaped to get into bed with us. I guess she really likes us. Hertz has fully recovered from her back surgery. She is allowed to wrestle and play and be a cat again. In non cat related news, I produced and directed a special piece about my friend, and Oklahoma Watercolor Master, Monte Toon. He talks about his 50 years of art, while he painted a picture for us. I'm proud of this piece. It will air Thursday night on RSU-TV, Channel 35 in Tulsa. Friday morning, you can find it on rsu.tv. Thanks everyone. Have a good Christmas/New Year. Ours will be a little dimmer without Telly. #TellytheCat #Telly #Hertz #UhuratheCat #MonteToon #PerspectiveswithSamJones #Perspectives #RSUTV #EmilySpivy

I reluctantly started a fundraiser on Facebook. Below this photograph of Hertz, I explain why. Hertz the cat suffered an injury in July. We bought some items at Lowe’s one night, and she investigated a plastic bag that had a spray can in it before we put the contents of the bag away. She got her head stuck in the bag, and panicked as she ran around the house. She hit furniture, and the can banged into her until Jason got the bag off of her. She hid afterward, but we did not realize she was injured until later. We took her to the vet, had x-rays done, and they thought it was a deep tissue bruise because the x-rays showed nothing. She got a bit better after a round of medication, then she started hurting again. We brought her back and had more x-rays done, they sent these to OSU’s school of animal medicine. They didn’t see anything either. She slowly improved a bit, but after a while started to decline again. We took her back to the vet last night, and when the vet looked at her, said we needed to go to OVS and get her a CT scan. Her CT scan showed that she had a fractured vertebrae from the incident, and when it healed, it formed a spur that is poking her spinal column. The cost for this is going to be a bit above $4000.00. I don’t like the idea of asking for money, but a few friends said they would help. Hertz is only 14 months old, and she is a loving cat. I lost my fourteen year old cat earlier this year due to natural causes. The vet in June said Pepper most likely had a Thyroid Storm. Rare, but usually fatal. So, I thought I'd share this here. I started it last week. So far, enough people have given money that her overnight hospital stay tonight should be covered. As I was typing this, I just got a phone call. Her surgery went well! She is in recovery, and will spend at least one night in the hospital. If you feel like helping, here is the link to the Facebook fundraiser. She is only 14 months old, and she was a rescue from Kentucky that was staying at my sister's vets office. #HertztheCat #HertztheCatsFundraiser #HertztheCatsBackFundraiser #FacebookFundraiser #Cat

Starting on Memorial Day, I became sick. It was a cold that eventually turned into a sinus infection, and a horrible cough. I was sick until around June 19th. The first week of June was a really busy week with a lot of on location shoots, and I don't know how I made it through. It was hot and miserable, and I probably overdid it making myself worse. After I got better, we upgraded our plumbing in the house, and I thought we could relax. I was wrong. Very wrong. First, I found out a longtime friend passed away, and his memorial was going to be on my birthday. Second, our cat Pepper got very sick. Pepper was nowhere to be found a couple of Mondays ago. I found her under the bed, which wasn't unusual. What was unusual is that she screamed if she was touched. She didn't look, feel, or smell right, so I rushed her to the vet. The vet said that it was probably arthritis because Pepper was 14. The next day, I had to take a half day off work to have some work done on my car, and I went by the house first. Pepper was lying in the floor, almost in a coma. I scooped her up, put her in the crate, and took her back to the vet. She spent the next three nights in the hospital. She did not make it. She passed on Friday, June 29th. She either had what's called a thyroid storm, or her pancreas went haywire. The vet wasn't sure exactly what killed her so fast, even after lots of blood tests. She was bouncy and happy the day before she went to the vet. You can learn more about her from her facebook page if you like. During her second night in the hospital, Chester had severe vomiting and diarrhea. I took him to the vet, and he had x-rays and scans. The vet was torn if it was a parasite, or something he ate. Chester likes to chew on all things plastic, and he is an indoor cat, so parasites would have been a surprise. I got some stomach medication, and we went home. Only to find the next night, things were not any better, and he was not eating. So, back to the vet again. This time, Chester had to spend an evening at the hospital with an IV for fluids, and medication. He also had to have more scans and x-rays. It looks like it was something he ate, and it was moving very slowly out of his system, messing things up as it went along. He is home and after all the medication, he appears to be in good shape. We took the other three cats in to have them checked out, and Telly needed dental work. We had her dental work done last week. We discovered Lucy is proud of her weight. We were at the vet's office seven times in a week and a half. Those were expensive visits. We decided to open our home to a tiny little soul, a rescue kitten already named Nicki. Nicki is about three months old. She won't replace Pepper by any means. She brings some bounce to the house. She also adores Telly, the 18 year old cat. She isn't so sure about Dobby. She likes to wrestle with the other cats, much to their irritation. I often find her curled up next to me when I wake up in the morning, or wedged between my husband and me. #PeppertheCat #Kitten #Cat #Death #Vet #Nicki #Sick #ChestertheCat #Sinus

Since I last wrote, I attended a fun "Weird Al" Yankovic concert in Kansas City where he sang original songs, not the parodies that you're used to hearing. Weird Al talking about one of his songs. The show was quite fun. The meet and greet wasn't the greatest setup. It was the first time I'd been shuffled through an assembly line after an Al show. In the past, "Weird Al" would come out and mingle with us a bit at his own pace. But, I'm still grateful I got to see him again. On May 9th, I attended a reunion for my first television station, WPSD-TV in Paducah, KY. That's the place where I got my real start in the TV business. I was a work study student in college, but WPSD gave me the real world knowledge I needed to actually work in television. Therefore, I'm grateful for that. It was a lot of fun seeing several of my former co-workers, and some of the people I grew up watching on TV. They hope to make it an annual event, so I plan on going back as long as they will let me. In other news, this season of "Perspectives" has ended. I'll be reaching out soon to book guests for season 13. I directed a rather spirited gubernatorial debate Wednesday night. It will air tonight at 9PM on RSU-TV, and it will be posted online on our YouTube page around the same time. I'll try to remember to come back and post a link later. I'll be back soon. Take care!

I have time for just a quick update today. I've been trying to find a little time to get back into sketching during downtime. It's not always easy to find time. I'm rusty all over again. Hopefully, I get better again. I'll keep working on it. In other news, this season of Perspectives is winding down. Three more shows to air. One more to record. Then, debate season starts for the governor's race in Oklahoma. I've heard that I should also have a music program to direct and produce soon if that all pans out. In personal news, I'll be seeing "Weird Al" again soon! Hopefully there will be photos to share.