Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• My back still hurts. A lot.
• A four year old girl was reported missing then found dead by deputies in the back seat of her family's SUV last night. If I've got the address correct near Cleburne, there are some pretty nice homes in that area. 
• It is kind of hard to explain how the funeral of the firefighter killed at the Ballpark turned out to be such a spectacle (probably wrong word) yesterday. He wasn't, after all, not killed in the line of duty.  What if the man had been killed in a car accident or at a little league park? The funeral would have then been a small and solemn affair.
• Lake Bridgeport is now dropping about a foot every two weeks and it's about to get a lot worse.
• The Ticket's Gordon Keith went to Africa on vacation and has posted some pics, including a couple of him kneeling over dead animals that he presumably shot. For the life of me, I don't understand why you would want to kill an animal like that. 
• The All Star game is in Arizona tonight. Wasn't there talk at one time about a boycott due to the state's immigration laws?
• The father of the Fort Worth kid bitten by a shark off the Texas coast last week was on WBAP this morning. Hal Jay asked the dad if the kid was wearing any type of "leather" at the time of the attack. (Referring to a skin-diving suit.)
• A Britney "Hey, now."
• Finally, DPS allows you to check the status of your driver's license online (i.e. is it suspended).  For years, you would have to call a non-toll free number and wait for at least 30 minutes. There's a fee but it's hard to tell when it applies. 
• Country boy shoots himself in the leg preparing to do battle with a paper target. (Language warning.)
• The Family Cat now wants to be petted for thirty seconds at the beginning of the day. It's like a Helen Keller break through. 
• Streaker gets the horns by a bull/cow in Pamplona. I cheer for the animals every year.
• Mrs. LL tried to make her own sushi or some kind of roll last night. I don't think that went very well. 

Kate Upton Killing It At The Home Run Derby

For the rest of us, we were killed by Chris Berman's "back back back" commentary --- something I rant about every year.  Each of us has a mission in life. A sacred mission. A mission that never rests. Mine is to see Berman removed from the airwaves.

And I'll be screaming "Freedom!!!" like that Mel Gibson character when it happens.

Liberally Lean Forecast: A Beating

The famous heat wave of 1980 had a streak of 42 consecutive days where the temperature exceeded 100 degrees. That streak ended on August 3rd.

Idiocracy Headline

Let me rephrase: "Twelve years ago, Terry Bradshaw was divorced from a lady who now is the alleged victim of a theft by her maid."  

And I kind of feel the need to explain who Terry Bradshaw is.

Tired Head Warning: Debt Ceiling Post

I know some of you will eat this stuff up, so I'll post it.  If I understand it correctly (which is highly, highly suspect), these are the ground/political rules:

• The U.S. has, or soon will, reach our legal debt ceiling which means that the U.S. can no longer borrow money.
• The Democrats don't have any problem raising the debt ceiling.
• Republican would agree to raise the debt ceiling but only if there was a budget cut equal to the raise. 
• The Tea Partiers will accept the Republican position but if they had it their way they wouldn't raise the ceiling under any circumstances.
• If the ceiling isn't raised, the U.S. can't borrow money to  make payments on its current debts meaning that debt could go into default. If the U.S. debt goes into default, we've got Armageddon. 
• In actuality, the U.S. wouldn't have to default on its debt but could instead not fund part of its everyday budget.  
• House Speaker John Boehner wants to stand his ground but doesn't want the President to make him look like the bad guy if this gets nasty.

Like I said, the Most Trusted Source In News is back in the States. 

Hey, We Might Get A "Bum Steer" Award After All

Totally missed this.

Credit: Fox 4. (Unrelated: is doing mugshot bits, now.)

I'm Still Sick About This

To fall in front of his son is heartbreaking.  And if I'm Josh Hamilton, who is absolutely faultless in tossing the ball in the man's direction, I'm really messed up right now.

Side note: Someone actually called up the Mark Davis Show and questioned whether firefighters from across the state should be attending today's memorial service in light of the fire danger everywhere.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Alert: I'm not coming back. I'm now an official Mexican Drug Lord. Or Mexican Drug Kingpin. (I've got to check my employee handbook to get the title right.)
• OK, I'm also not one of the at least 40 killed over the weekend in Mexico.
• Note to self: Try not to fly back on the day before a work day next year. Going from a week of sandals to a suit and oxford shoes is not a pleasant experience. 
• TSA wasn't a problem. Things moved smoothly without an issue.
• Cabo's airport still requires you to get off the plane by walking down to the tarmac. Weird.
• I thought I had screwed up my back on the morning of vacation by lifting a krillion pound suitcase of Mrs. LL. It rallied amazingly though. Then last night, once home, the excruciating pain returned just by bending over. Not a good sign even though it recovered fairly quickly.
• Morning number two of vacation was spent working on the logistics of putting in a new HVAC in the rent house. Put that out your mind and try to enjoy vacation, will ya?
• I like all-inclusive places even if you do begin to get sick of the food by the end of the week.
• Our housesitter's message on Tuesday (she's a teenage girl in the neighborhood who was just supposed to check in on the Family Cat once a day): "Can I use yall's shower?"  
• Mrs. LL left her cell phone in the transport van back to the airport. She actually had them look for it, they found it, and they promised to mail it. Place your bets. 
• For trip planning, I'm a fan of TripAdvisor.com. Most hotels have a ton of reviews which can be filtered by interest. 
• Saw a kid at the resort who was constantly escorted around in a stroller although he was far too old for it, and he was always playing on an iPad. I nicknamed him the "Boy King." 
• Another teenage gal spent two days being pushed around in a wheelchair after an injury. The only thing I could see wrong with her was a bandage around a big toe. 
• Saw a lady in her 50s go down from either heat exhaustion and/or alcohol consumption.  Mrs. LL ran over there to make sure she was breathing and had a pulse (she did), but the oddest part was the lady who came up and diagnosed her as "obviously drunk" and walked away. The quickness of her diagnosis seemed to be in direct correlation to the fact that everyone didn't take three steps back when she announced she was a nurse. 
• I'll admit, I'm still completely behind on the news.
• The firefighter who died after the fall at the Ballpark was named Shannon Stone. I kept thinking that name sounds familiar but I fear I'm just thinking of Sharon Stone. 
• A 16 pound baby was born in Longview? He is named JaMichael. 
• Of the many things I missed about the Casey Anthony trial, one of the biggest was not seeing the reaction of Nancy Grace. (Here's one clip I plan to watch today.)
• Read between the lines: A Tarrant County judge says she's really going to be strict with those who violate probation when the real story is "I'm not going to send you to prison for violating probation because that means more money for out probation department."
• Car bumps rider in Tour de France causing a pile up and one cyclist to meet the business end of a fence. Edit: Photo. OUCH!!!
• Keep hearing funny things about the movie Bridesmaids.
• Watched most of the documentary about the McDonald's hot coffee case on HBO. The injuries the elderly lady suffered as a passenger (yep, she wasn't driving) were incredibly severe. Shockingly severe. And I was torn between how that shouldn't matter (she's the one who spilled the coffee) versus how much it should (what if she had been handed a cup of acid instead of just coffee which was at a bizarrely high temperature level.)
• I'll try to go back on the "poll posts" from last week and add a remark as to whether I'm surprised by the results or not. 

Less THan 24 Hours Before Your Most Trusted Source In News is Back In The States

So I checkED in just to make sure that Wise County - the Place and the Blog - are still there (I haven't looked at the comments submitted, I'll get to it). But I've learned . . .

• A big fire in downtown Bridgeport
• Near motorcycle death on 287
• A real death at the Ballpark in Arlington. (In front of his son no less. That may be one of the saddest thing I ever heard.)
• I'm typing this outside looking over the Sea Of Cortez and a bird almost took my head off two seconds ago. I've got my eye on him. I've named him Nemesis Bird. 
• A lady ran off the road in Wise County and was dangling off a cliff? How big does a drop off have to be to constitute a cliff? 
• Another wreck in Paradise where a guy rear-ended another vehicle.
• And photographer Joe Duty brought his A Game and was there at everyone. (I'm assuming it was his picks -- didn't look at they byline.)
• If everything doesn't get screwed up, we're going to take a small boat ride to the famous "arch" this morning. (That's "el archo" to my Spanish readers.)
• Mrs. LL learned a handful of Spanish words and has been using them like nobody's business. I've beaten her down by saying, "Next time, ask him, 'Dónde está la biblioteca?'"
• Rhiana's stage in Dallas at the Americna Airlines Center caught on fire last night?

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Not bad -- RIU Palace, Cabo

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