Off the I-15

People have been sending us their snowman photos since Monday, and since there’s no way we can fit them all in the paper, I am posting them all here. Enjoy.

From the Smith family on Garnet Avenue.

Michael Sanchez and Michael Marin with their hardhat snowman

From the Bernal family.

“Glori,” submitted by Peggy Chavez

From Richard Villegas

From Terri Rangel

Leah Quick and her snowman

From Marcia Bond. I would imagine this is her family. This guy is a personal favorite.

Haydn Diaz, left, and Devlin Diaz, right, fourth-graders at Hinkley Elementary School

From Jacob Gault, built near Copper City Road.

Submitted by April Evans

Brianna and Brooklyn Hoody, Zackary, Mariah, Caleb and Joshua Evans

From the Ferrel family

Ryan and Jillian Packer and their Frosty

This guy was made by the Morales family. His name is Steve Morales.

Anthony Islas, Austin Islas, Jiles Baldus, Alex Mora and Jesus Chavez

Shayne Pennington and Crystal Islas

Miyuki Savoie, 18, plants one on a snowman

The folks at Barstow Industrial Supply had a slow day. If only this one had come in time for our contest.

I took this one, of Romey Santini, 10 (right) and Larry Garcia, 12, off of East Fredricks Street. The kids said about 15 people spent five hours Wednesday night building this giant snowman.

It may not be a snowman, but it is too cute. Krystal Lewellyn, age one and a half, in her first snow storm.

Feel free to e-mail us if you have more.

Hi Barstow. I know some of you — at least three, probably — have been missing our blog. The blog has fallen into disuse in the past month, since former city editor Aaron Aupperlee headed back to Michigan, and we were operating with a news staff of one, namely me, for several weeks.

Now, however, we now have two new reporters, giving us all a little more room to breathe, and hopefully, expanding the depth of our local coverage. Video should also be making a comeback soon.

We’re in better shape, thankfully, than Tribune Co., the owner of the Los Angeles Times, which declared bankruptcy today.

Expect to hear from new reporters Charles Nguyen and Eunice Lee in the near future, as they get settled in and adjusted to the wonderful world of news in Barstow.

My cell phone rang while I was out getting the police logs today. The man on the other end of the line had a heavy accent and seemed agitated. He wanted to know why I had never responded to a letter and an email he sent me “regarding my relationship with my brother.” I get a lot of emails from people about a lot of different things, including people’s relationships with their family members, but this one didn’t ring a bell at all. We went back and forth for several minutes, while I was trying to figure out what he was talking about, and he was clearly convinced that I was beating around the bush.

“I don’t quite understand what it is you’re looking for,” I told him. “Is this a letter to the editor, or something you think I should write a story about?”

“I want you to print my letter in the paper!” he said.

“Okay,” I said, thinking I understood. “If it’s a letter to the editor, you actually need to send it to Scott Shackford. He’s our editor.”

“I want you to print my letter in Dear Abby!” he replied, growing more and more excited.

Suddenly it all became clear. It’s not the first time someone has been under the impression that I am the Abby who pens the regular Dear Abby advice column in the paper. For the record, I am not. Dear Abby is a widely syndicated column written by Jeanne Phillips under the pen name Abigail van Buren. It was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips, some time in the 1950s, I believe.

Apparently this guy had sent his letter to the contact address listed with the column, and after becoming frustrated with waiting for it to appear, called the newspaper to complain to Abby and got transferred to my extension.

So, just to set the record straight, I’m not Dear Abby — just a lowly reporter. You can write to me for advice if you really want to, but it won’t end up in the paper.

I’ve heard plenty of kids complain that there’s nothing to do in Barstow. But instead of sitting around in front of the XBox, these three Barstow Junior High School students decided to get creative. I came across them as I was driving down Virginia Way returning from an assignment Monday afternoon. Justice Chavez, 13, (left) and Pamela Martin, 12, (right), were so bored that they decided to wrap their friend Desean Clay, 13, in packaging tape.

The kids initially thought I was coming to yell at them when I did a U turn and pulled up in front of them to get a second look. But upon finding out I was from the newspaper, they immediately started hamming it up.

Who says kids don’t know how to use their imaginations any more?

Working in the news business, you just have to resign yourself to the fact that sometimes you will be wrong. For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a story predicting that regular unleaded gas in Barstow would hit $5 a gallon in the near future.

I don’t want the average unleaded gas price to hit $5. I drive a car, too, after all. But ever since the story ran, I have been driving by the 76 station on East Main Street daily, staring at the sign that has stubbornly remained at $4.99 a gallon ever since I predicted it would hit that fateful $5 mark.  In fact, I don’t think a single gas station in town has raised its prices since the gas-prices story ran. It’s as if every station in town decided to get together and make sure the paper would be wrong on this one.

On the other hand, I’m not really sorry to be wrong on this one.