Boyd Is Dark (If The Sun Wasn't Out)

First, the Justice of the Peace Office shut down now the schools released at 10:00 a.m. because there is no power in Boyd.

Stupid question: When there's a widespread and long power outage, what's the typical cause of it and what does it take to get it repaired?

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• Yeah, I know that was crazy weather last night, but I suspect in the 1970s and 1980s it might have warranted a couple of television break-ins, but it wouldn't have been wall to wall coverage.
• Have you ever heard of so many "hooks" and "potential"/"possible" tornadoes in your life? Weather coverage is now based upon the presentation of fear instead of information.
• Number of deaths and injuries from last nights storms: Zero. (Edit: OK, maybe one.) You realize your ride home was more dangerous than the weather last night, right?
• Not sure why Fox 4 decided to put a reporter off of 287 in Decatur yesterday evening.
• But that wasn't as silly as having anchorwoman Heather Hays stand on the sidewalk in front of their studios in downtown Dallas for two hours. ("Let's go to Heather to see what she can tell us about the current conditions out there.")
• I saw a ton of folks just standing in their yards and looking at the sky. I was one of them. My neighbor pointed out to me that he was from Illinois so he was used to tornadoes. Hey, hoss, don't try and scoreboard me - I grew up in Tornado Alley.
• A story on Fox 4 last night seemed like an ad for a storm shelter company in Decatur.
• There were some great storm shelters in my neighborhood as a kid, but I think they were built more for protection from the Soviet Union than from Mother Nature.
• The rain delay at the Ranger game was bizarre. At one point, what looked like a few thousand fans (maybe more) huddled in the outdoor concourse during a rain delay were routed down and through the Rangers dugout as bad weather approached. (Screenshot of them getting in. Pic of some of them crammed into the underground walkways.). When that created a human traffic jam in the stands, and with fans being pounded by weather, officials changed gears and told everyone to go back. 
• The long and snake like tornado over Argyle was pretty cool looking. Scary and dangerous, but cool. (Pic below on front page.)  Edit: Video of it here is fantastic.
• But we had a real emergency at my house: The season finale of Glee was interrupted.
• The most shocking news last night was that Channel 8 made the decision to run the finale of Dancing With The Stars instead of going with weather coverage. As The Ticket said this morning, "You know there had to be a tornado form in the Channel 8 newsroom and his name was Pete Delkus."
• WBAP's Hal Jay confusion-of-the-day occurred early this morning when he butchered Rangers' manager Ron Washington's famous quote of "That's the way baseball go" by saying Washington had said "Baseball do what baseball do."
• Joplin tornado damage: Before and After.

Faithful Reader Sent This In From Halset A Second Ago

Thanks, Laura.

(Now I've got to go back to Armageddon 2011 and watch some more of the news coverage coverage.)

Edit: You say Haslet, I typed Halset, why can't we all be friends.

Delkus Warns Of 60 MPH Golfballs. Kinda

Jacket Off!!! I'm Firing Up The Liberally Lean First Alert Storm Center

Man, it looks weird outside.

Edit: Live radar removed since storm has passed.This is how it looked at  4:54 p.m.  Just glanced off to the north. But there would be more to come later.

Edit: Fox 4 was here! Fox 4 was here!

It's A PDS! A PDS!

I thought they were making the acronym up, but not according to Wikipedia:

PDS tornado watches are issued when there is a greater risk of multiple strong, violent or extremely violent tornadoes in the watch area (damage consisting of EF4 or EF5), in addition to significant wind and hail damage. While there is no hard criteria for a PDS watch to be issued, they are usually issued when the potential exists for a major tornado outbreak. They represent about 90% of PDS watches issued

Does Pete Delkus know about this?

And You Wonder Why I Hate The Family Cat?

Just got news of this.

Edit: Many of the double entendre comments, although inspired and shocking, cannot be printed. The management thanks you for your interest.

4%?

I can't stand the guy, but I find this hard to believe. Story.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• A judge up at the courthouse was pretty funny yesterday when he expressed reservation about issuing a warrant for those who didn't show up for a morning docket. You know, that Rapture thing.
• I checked in on the Mavs with about five minutes left in the game last night and they were getting killed. That couldn't have possibly changed. 
• That Joplin tornado was horrible. But the local media was promoting fear this morning in its wake: NBC 5's Kim Fischer was at the Ballpark In Arlington reporting on what "officials" were doing to protect tonight's crowd in light of the "dangerous" weather they would see.
• I could have sworn she said that the game starts at 7:05 and the storms were expected around 7:00, but I'm not believing my ears until I hear a replay.
• Overslept this morning and I hate that. Was awakened to the weird alarm on Mrs. LL's cell phone that is the sound of a thunderstorm. (And then it asks you to solve a math problem before it will shut off.)
• I'm sure you saw that Troy Aikman is putting his Highland Park mansion on the market for $27 24 million. It seems like he bought pricey property adjacent to it and put improvements on it as well. (I think Deoin Sander's Prosper home was on the market for $21 million but never sold.)
• Had to go to the Wise County Jail jail yesterday and noticed a young girl who had just been released. She was trying to find out where she could sign a statement saying another girl who was still in jail, "Had nothing to do with it, and shouldn't have to post bond to be released." Girl, it ain't that easy.
• Odd story: Family members call Fort Worth police after a woman threatens suicide. Cops arrive at her home and she "walks" towards them with scissors so officers shoot and kill her. Please tell me there is more to this story. 
• A new prison sits empty near Anson but officials are hopeful that they can get prisoners from  Bridgeport since the private prison there has a contract that is expiring. (I have no idea if that means it won't be renewed or they hope it won't be renewed.)
• I can never hear the name of  Anson without thinking of the phrase "No Dancin' In Anson" -- a product of a real life Footloose-like controversy there in 1987.
• Rare Lindsay Lohan pool appearance
• Someone on WBAP's morning team ("Sean"?) said this at 8:09 a.m. this morning in reference to the death of Macho Man Randy Savage last week in a car wreck : "You know how they got him out of his car? They had to use a Slim Jim." Wow. (In case you didn't know, Savage used to promote the "Slim Jim" snack.)

There's a video going around of a Weather Channel reporter getting emotional on the streets of Joplin, MO today as he viewed the tornado damage.  Near the end, he mentions the exact location and it's interesting to see how the place looks on Google's Street View.

President Obama's Limo Gets Stuck Today In Ireland

Did anybody think about doing a test run?

They finally had to get a backup limo.

Who Ya Got? Arrested Guy Who Just Happens To Be Black* vs. Overweight Cop

And does it really take 1:06 from the time someone leaps over the counter in a jail until the reinforcements show up? (But when they show up, they show up big time.)
______________
*The "just happens to be black" was a reference to Ticket shtick.  Gordon Keith doesn't refer to someone as a "black man" but as "a man who just happens to be black."

Criminal Justice Visual Observations From This Morning

Lousy picture, but this guy was a cross between Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. What got my attention even more was that he was carrying a gun and had a badge that said, I think, "County Attorney."  I saw some local deputies talking to him and it sounded like he had "heard a tip" that someone he was looking for would be on the 10:30 a.m. docket. I'm guessing he's an investigator with a prosecutor's office that is not here in Wise County.

And while waiting on the docket myself, I was reading "The Texas Prosecutor" which had a feature article by a prosecutor in Georgetown who pursued someone in Justice of the Peace Court for the Class C offense of Refusing To Pay Toll. I'm not sure anyone every had a Class C article published before.

Colonial Pics From This Weekend

 Tattoos and Elvis Costello Glasses In Blue (Left)

 Her Dad Will Be Calling Her

Kind Of Expected Fergie To Be In There, Too

Way too many other photos here.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• My flower bed reconstruction update: Have you every tried to level a row of limestone bricks? Threading a needle is far easier and takes less precision.
• The Family Cat update: Still mean and stupid. And she still looks at me like she's thinking, "Who are you?"
• While watching the Second Grader in the House's softball game over the weekend, I witnessed a legitimate and well executed Triple Play. (She wasn't involved.) Runners on second and  third. Pop up to third baseman. Caught. (One.) Runner at third took off too soon so third baseman quickly steps on bag. (That's two.) Then the runner on second (we're talking Second Grade again) got confused and ran towards third where she was tagged out. (That's three.) 
• I don't think a single player on the field understood what had just happened. 
• The cutest part was the runner going into third was tagged standing up and right in the chest (by a big girl) which caused her to go flying backwards and land on her back (she's ok). The cute part is that the girl who tagged her broke into tears because she thought she had hurt her. 
• One final softball note: Somehow I've become the unofficial/official box score keeper, and I suddenly became the center of attention on Sunday when everyone surrounded me when a "Was that really the third out?" controversy erupted. Somehow I had the final say. I'm not used to that. 
• I saw the footage Friday of a Mesquite Baptist preacher getting booked in to jail at West Virginia after allegations of sexual assault of a woman he met in a bar. Last night the news reported he had hung himself while in jail. 
• Another guy who killed himself over the weekend was the composer of the what-a-beating song, "You Light Up My Life." (And, based upon the article, that guy's life was a mess.)
I don't think "Hey, Now" does justice to Bar Refaeli on a boat.
• Tornado Insanity: 89 and counting were killed in Missouri yesterday from one (coming on the heels of the one that killed over 350 in Alabama and other Southern states earlier this month.) Photos.
• The annual Arizona State "Undie Run." (Thanks, Steve.)
• I'm still waiting for my predicted Mavericks playoff collapse, but I'm getting worried. 
• I think I got my haircut Friday by a gal who really needed to be somewhere else.
• The Onion ran a story about Planned Parenthood building an "Eight Billion Dollar Abortionplex." Those not understanding that the The Onion is a parity*  site (and those who probably believe those Nigerian emails are true), were not pleased.  [Edit: Let the dogpile continue. But, of course, since the site levels the playing field for all news media, it technically could be a parity site.]
• I was going to go with the cover of the Star-Telegram today because I think they greatly over estimate how much we care about The Colonial golf tournament.
• But I went with one from Missouri: 

Pete Delkus Gave Bridgeport A Shout Out

Funny

Do That A Couple Of More Times

. . .  and it becomes the equivalent of a car alarm. No one will pay attention.