Reading your e-mails is a welcomed addition to my daily routine here at News 10.   Some are critical…some are complimentary…and some are downright comical!   I will occasionally share a few “Best Of” e-mails and comments here on my blog:

 Floyd, a retired science teacher, e-mailed the following:

Rusty, I live in a double-wide mobile home in Moody.  You were saying that people should leave mobile homes and get in ditches rather than stay in the mobile home (during tornadoes).   Just as you were saying that, I looked out at my ditch and water was overflowing the ditch and the water was flowing really fast.   The pea size hail was still coming down.    Now my question is this…should I get in the ditch anyway or lay in the wet and muddy hail?   If I get in the ditch, does the tornado danger usually last as long as I can hold my breath or should I take my scuba, snorkel and mask with me?   (just joshing ya!)

 I guess this viewer comment is from a disgruntled hair stylist:

“Don’t need Rusty on the air every 15 or 20 minutes telling about severe weather with his sexy hair do, receding hair line and his tiny little bald spot on the back of his head.   Need to make it easy on his self and put the scroll on the bottom of the television.”

 Jeff in Belton e-mailed the following:

Just wanted to pass on my appreciation to your weather team for their great job covering the severe weather yesterday.   We live in Belton/Temple near Temple Lake Park , in the direct line of the tornado/wall cloud.   Your team kept us up to the minute on the movement of the storm, and helped me keep my family safe.   Please pass on my thanks.

 Thanks Jeff!  Will be happy to pass this on to the rest of the team.

  Rosalind Mills of Killeen e-mailed the following:

There was a comment that Rusty Garrett made when doing the weather one day or evening in the form of the weather was going to be “Cotton Picking” hot.   What did he mean by that?   If ever there was a racist comment, that was one.   You guys (fellow news anchors) are on the set with him every day and affiliate with him on a daily basis.   Is that statement consistent with the views and beliefs of the staff?   If anyone is playing the “Race” card, it’s the media.   Believe me, the American people are smarter than the media gives them credit for.   We can see clearly through all the double talk, and the media hype.

 I am truly sorry you took my adjective “Cotton Pickin’ HOT” as racially motivated Ms. Mills.   I can assure you, that was NOT my intent.   Truth be told, members of my family worked long, hot summers in the cotton fields at Merkel, Texas in Taylor County near Abilene .   I’ve heard my dear, late Aunt Mona talk many times about those “Cotton Pickin” hot days when her hands bled from hours in the scorching West Texas sun working those rows of cotton.    I think history will bear out that neither the task, nor the temperature description, belong exclusively to African Americans, or any race for that matter.