A Follow Up To My Random Thought About Early Voting

I just picked up a copy of the Dallas Morning News. This picture was on the cover. (Click to enlarge.)

Wheels Just Came Flying . . .

. . . off.

High School Sportzzzz

3A AP Poll (I could have sworn I saw that Bridgeport was #10 last week but this appears to be the first week they were ranked.) And someone posted a comment saying the Bulls were #1 in the Harris Rating System poll, but I haven't seen it online yet.

Happy Wedding Of The Day

Either that's a kid or some short guy that's the star of this presentation, I really can't tell. But I've got to hand it to him -- no wobbling and falling to one knee before softly going to the ground like we see on America's Funniest Home Videos. Nope. This kid lands like an Olympic dismount off the uneven parallel bars that has gone horribly wrong. THUMP!!!! He fell faster and harder than the Dallas Cowboys' season.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• I saw that 183 was shut down in both directions this morning in Euless. What a mess. But did you see that the three car wreck at 2:50 a.m. (which left one car burnt to a crisp) was in the westbound lane but a body ended up in the eastbound lane?
• And after I heard an update about that wreck on the radio, I learned of a "fuel spill" in Paradise at "51 and 114".
• Early voting was at a record turnout yesterday. I thought about saying, "That's not first time Republicans coming out in droves" and then, considering the Obama hatred in these here parts, I'm not so sure.
• I saw one guy complaining that he had to stand in line for one hour to vote. Hoss, it's early voting. Come back some other day.
• McCain's daughter. Hey, now.
• I was jogging yesterday when a guy runs up besides me and starts peppering me with questions about distance, speed, etc. Man, I do not want to chit chat during a jog.
• Texas v. Texas Tech will have a 7:00 o'clock kickoff in a couple of weeks. It's still to be determined whether it will be on ABC or ESPN.
• I had a chance to go to the Ghostbar on Saturday. I decided the bang-to-hype ratio would be too out of whack.
• I hate those John Cornyn commercials where he looks reflectively across the Texas landscape. They are well produced, but I hate them.
• Heard word that a Decatur High School girl received a pretty severe electrical shock last weekend while at school. No serious injury, though.
• Heard word that the shooting of a young woman in Wise County last week was self inflicted. Not confirmed.
• The old Halloween movie was scary. I hate scary movies.
• It's about time for all the celebrities to go to Halloween parties in crazy outfits. Good times. (Britney flashback.)
• A cold front is coming in tomorrow. I predict it will arrive at 11:34 a.m.
• An extremely hot 26 year old Arkansas anchorwoman was found severely beaten in her home. Coincidentally (????), she had a small role in the movie "W" which opened last weekend.
• Grocery store self-check out power down yesterday: The lady in front of me decided it would be a good idea to hand each package to her adolescent daughter so that she could experience the joy of scanning.

Monday Afternoon Pick Me Up

I had never seen this before, and I feel like I've been robbed of hours of joy. Keys to the video:

• That was a serious face plant. Man, his head snapped back like nobody's business.
• The production guy needs to be fired. When you have gold like that, you do not cut to some pre-packaged footage of the product. Nope. You zoom in on the guy in pain.
• This lady could have been one of my many ex-wives. It's like the story of my life: I find myself in excruciating pain, she momentarily expresses mock concern, and then laughs.

That's L-O-W-E-R-Y, Right?

Note to self: If I ever decide to go certifiable-nuthouse-crazy and decide to forge the signature of the prosecutor on a "Motion To Dismiss", but sure to spell it correctly. (From Waco.)

Remember Kids . . .

. . . if you plan on getting liquored up at a tailgate party and launching your body onto a table to crush it into a million pieces, take a practice run first.

Plain Weird

Story. This happens more often that motorcycle wrecks. I'll swear that at the end of last week, there was news footage of two separate houses being crushed by a car that used a lawn for Central Expressway. And it always seems the occupants "narrowly missed being injured." Edit: Found a pic from one of my week's wrecks:

She's Making A Comeback

Christina Aguilera.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• As goofy as the public is, I'm amazed at the continued popularity of 60 Minutes. I actually watched it for the the first time in a while last night and was surprised to see one of the stories anchored by Lara Logan, who has the great combo of being hot and having a sexy accent. (And I recognize the inherent irony of this random thought.)
• Movie box office rankings for the year. I love stuff like that. And when I panned down to the bottom I saw Kevin Costner's Swing Vote which looked so awful that no one saw it.
• I can't believe the UT is as good as they are, and I don't know who can possibly beat them. Scary thought: They are supposed to be better next year.
• One more UT note: QB Colt McCoy was 29 of 32 in passing on Saturday. Absolutely insane. I can't believe I'm saying this but right here, right now, I wouldn't put take him out even if I had Vince Young on the sideline to replace him.
• I want to see Oliver Stone's W.
• The State Fair's web site suggests everyone take the same exit if you are approaching on I-30 from the west. That's dumb. I overshot the caravan of cars trying to take it on Texas/OU weekend, took the next exit, and was parked within 10 minutes.
• From the Dallas Morning News on Sunday: "Last season, there were probably 1,000 [deer] shot in Texas that would qualify as trophies by almost any whitetail hunter's definition. At least 90 percent of them were shot while they ate corn." That is, corn that was released by battery operated feeders. That is the equivalent of fishing in a barrel.
• Just when you thought the McCain backers couldn't get any more beaten down, Colin Powell endorses Obama. And most McCain backers would rather vote for Powell than McCain.
• Frequent commentator Denny Crane.
• Messenger photographer Joe Duty reflects back about drag queens in Chico. (Oddest. Sentence. Ever.)
• BoDunkADunk. Or, as I tend to say, "Hey, now."
• There are calls to fire Wade Phillips this morning and handing the reins to coach-in-waiting Jason Garrett. Uh, what's Jason done that qualifies him as a genius?
• Ate lunch at Bone Daddy's in Grapevine this weekend. Hottest waitresses ever?
• Someday, soon, some player is going to die in the NFL. (Prompted by the hit Ike Hilliard took last night on Sunday Night Football.) Other observation: The rule about "not leading with the crown of the helmet during a tackle" is ignored on every play.
• Game 7 of the American League Championship series was on TBS? "Enjoy" baseball while you can - it will be dead soon.
• Craziest story I didn't see until this morning: "Man kills himself at crowded Hurst park"

"Uh, Do Thay Have Some Good Hamburger Joints In St. Louis?"

I stopped really caring about pro football when it dawned on me that your average fan cared more about the game than those playing it. That being said, the Cowboys are done as long as that man is in the sideline. You readers are more motivated to click on Random Thoughts to see a hot girl than than the team is to play for him. Edit: And for the life of me I don't understand those that blame Jerry Jones. He's put a vast array of talent on the field - that's his job. Getting them to play is the problem. Edit #2: And this in Sports Illustrated today on Jerry Jones' spending: "[WR Roy] Williams' deal ratchets up the Cowboys' 2010 current cap obligations, with 33 player contracts signed, to $138.8 million, which is $27 million more than any other team in football -- and that doesn't include the monster contract due premium pass-rusher DeMarcus Ware early in 2009; he could become the highest-paid defensive player in football."

Friday Night Lights Reviewed With Saturday Daylight

Bridgeport 56 Iowa Park 7

WF Hirschi 18 Decatur 47

Boyd 29 Alvord 18

Chico	19
Paradise	61

Busy Work Day. Slow Day For Fun.

But you can watch the incredible Red Sox game last night in three minutes -or- a fat guy dancing in the stands with Charles Barkley's head superimposed.

Friday Photo Fun

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Big win by TCU last night over BYU, and a huge comeback by the Red Sox over the not-devil Rays. And I didn't see either.
• One more reference to "Joe the Plumber" and I'm going to off myself
• And some plumber in Amarillo just happens to have a web site named www.joetheplumber.com . (And you can even join his mailing list to get "breaking news about our business.")
• "I just lost $500 since now I won't get to prepare an occupational license" - what an overweight lawyer announced at a driver's license hearing in Fort Worth yesterday when an officer failed to show. That meant his client's driver's license would be saved from a suspension. I think (and hope) he could see the disgust in my eyes.
• Want to see that "I Kissed A Girl" chick jump into a big old cake and then bust her arse? Sure you do.
• Video of the day stolen from Silicone Alley here. And she had the funniest description: "fast forward to 2:15 and pray for the table."
• Sometimes I pull up beside a flat bed truck on the highway and wonder if I could jump on it at full speed if I told my passenger to "grab the wheel."
• When I said I had to mow my lawn one more time I should have added that I was going to hire a bunch of Chinese guys to do an orchestrated routine using grass recycling bags as part of the closing ceremony.
• Phil King sure isn't worried about the general election.
• I had almost forgotten about Spaghetti Cat.
• I'm disturbed by the hunting shows on those obscure channels up in the 600s on DirecTV (which I probably can't get now anyway. Problem solved.)
• I woke up in the middle of the night again last night. Then, with a bit of creepiness hanging in the room, I turned to look at the clock. Would it be 3:00 a.m. again? Nope: 2:56. Man, this is getting weird.
• Fox 4 had another motorcycle death story this morning, but I don't see it on their web site yet. Edit: Here
• Boss's Day was yesterday. It should be abandoned. And I also shouldn't force all our staff to put a crown on me while holding an offering of baked goods. It's just plain awkward.

Final Random OU/Texas Pics

End of game playing of school song. I raised the camera above my head and shot blindly: Very funny bit. Grandma Texas fan makes a visor out of a popcorn box and texts someone at halftime: Hot OU fan in the middle of the Texas fans. She schooled one hostile fan when he yelled at the OU placekicker coming onto the field for allegedly faking an injury on a previous punt. "That's not the same guy!!!" she said (and the idiot Texas fan should have known that.) And one final one that I provide only a link to because it involves an obscene gesture. The Evil Empire, indeed.

Best. Buy. Power. Down.

So for whatever reason, my DirecTV has been on the blink. I'm not getting about half the channels (which has been kind of refreshing since I'm watching stuff I've never seen before) but that joy came to an end a few hours ago when I realized I couldn't get the TCU/BYU game tonight. Unacceptable. I'm kind of weird because I went out five years ago and bought one of those fancy flat panel HD televisions. That's not the part that's weird. The fact that I've never subscribed to an HD provider is weird. But this technical glitch was the incentive I needed. So I went over to the new Best Buy off of Heritage Trail in north Fort Worth to sign up for HD DirectTV. First I looked at all the HD TVs just for fun and realized they were selling for about a 1/3 of what I paid a few years back. OK, I can deal with that. I was going high-tech. I was going to be a new man. But then I walk over to the "DirecTV HD" booth (yep, they've got one) only to find no one there. No biggie. I looked around and saw the above receivers (those are my pics) and instantly contracted a severe case of Confused Head. Yeah, I understand the DVR. I understand the dual DVR. But do I need one of those HD receivers for every television? What if one of my other televisions isn't HD? Do I really have to buy this equipment? Ugh. But a nice salesman showed up so I told him I wanted DirecTV HD but I had a question about this receiver business. "How's all this work?" I asked. He says, and I'm not making this up, "I'm not sure. Basically you buy the box from us and then go home and call them." I'm pretty sure you could you see the life force drain from me. I was there. I was ready to spend money. I just wanted someone to tell me what I needed to do. Heck, rip me off! Just give me some solid information that I could believe in. "Uh, OK, " I said - still not willing to give up. "Do I need a receiver for every TV?" He leans down and looks at the dual DVR (which I think means you can watch one channel while a different channel is recorded) and he says, "Naaa, I'm pretty sure you can hook two TVs up to this. " Not only did that not answer the question, I'm pretty sure that answer was flat out Crazy Talk. I was done. "OK, let me look around a little bit." And then I high tailed it out of there (Editor's note: That's what we call a Random Thoughts "call back joke.") Can anybody help a brother out?