Wow! Nice Bling. Sorry about your penis.

I just heard that a friend of mine recently went to Northpark Mall to pick up a few things.  He parked in the lot and went inside, forgetting that he had left two Dallas Cowboys tickets on the passenger seat in plain sight. He came back a half hour later to find the side window bashed in, broken glass was everywhere, and there on the seat....were FOUR Dallas Cowboys tickets.  :)

Today's big breaking news:  The Jonas Brothers are splitting up.  I wonder if I should wear shorts or jeans today?  Oh, look....a bunny. 

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While I don't have a horse in this race....I'm not Catholic....I must say I really like their new Pope, Francis.  Here he is, one of the most powerful men in the world, yet he eschews all the trappings of royalty available to him.  He passed on the opulent living quarters previous Pope's have enjoyed, the Wizard of Oz red shoes, the fancy gold bobbles, etc.  He just seems like a genuinely nice guy, the kind of pal you'd like to have over to share a few (blessed) beers and maybe watch some college football on a Saturday afternoon.

I'm rarely if ever impressed by Bling.  Back in my airshow days when a rich pilot would fly in his million dollar P-51 or similar and we'd get him safely parked and chocked, we'd greet him and say, "Wow!  Nice plane....sorry about your penis."

One of the most interesting men I've ever known was the uncle of a friend of mine.  (This was before Dos Equis Man.)  He lived in Houston in the same house he'd lived in for 25 years, drove a 5-year-old Olds 98, and wore comfortable, well-broken-in clothes.  He would invite us down to stay in his (very modest) beach house on Galveston Island and take us all out fishing.  Later we'd have a crab boil and sit around afterwards where he could talk intelligently about any topic we'd throw at him.  We tried to trip him up, but he bested us every time.  He was just an all-around brilliant, fun, pleasant, down-to-earth guy.

We knew he was financially comfortable....he and his brother had an oil pipeline related business....but it was only when he passed away that we found out exactly how well off he was.  Turns out his financial statement had more zeros to the left of the decimal point than any of us could even fathom.

I often think, when I win the lottery....that's it.  I often think of that.  But when I do, what would I buy? A few modest things maybe, some travel, but I don't really want much more than what I have now.  I just bought some new jeans, I have every color T-shirt LL Bean offers, and I just put new synthetic oil in my car.  

I am getting a new iPhone soon, but I'm going for the black one.  The gold one is just too Blingy.  :)

S

VERY encouraging signs....with EDIT

In my daily drives around town I've begun to pay attention to what's going on around me as opposed to just trying to get from Point A to Point B.   Here's what I've noticed just within 1 1/2 miles of my home:

Everywhere I looked I saw construction.  LOTS of it!  New apartments, retail, a hotel, and more than a few new office buildings.  Yes, I know Dallas and Houston and Austin and Texas in general are doing well, but I suspect if you paid attention when driving around Atlanta or Chicago or Boston or Denver you'd see something similar.

Either our economy is turning the corner as I write this *fingers crossed* or it's close at hand and these forward-looking companies are getting the jump on their competition.  

So, does Obama get credit for this?  Who knows.  I'm of the opinion the President can sit in the Oval Office late at night eating Cheetos and watching porn and he'll still get the credit for or the blame for whatever happens, whether he deserves it or not.  In most cases whatever a president does, for better or worse, isn't obvious until years later.  

You can credit Obama or the Easter Bunny or Batman for this light at the end of the tunnel, I don't care.  I'm just glad to see these encouraging signs.

S

EDIT....from USA Today:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Existing home sales jumped 7.8% in August to the highest level in more than two years, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.

In an earlier report, U.S. builders started work on more homes in August, driven by the fastest pace of single-family home construction in more than two years.

Flush twice....Houston needs the water

That was the news headline today regarding the drought all across Texas.  Technically the Dallas area is no longer in a drought.  In fact, so far this year we're 5" above normal in our rainfall.   Our area lakes have been largely replenished and it's not even spring yet, traditionally our "wet" season.

Houston, however, isn't so lucky.  Their population is growing, but their water supply due to the drought is shrinking.  Eventually the two lines on the graph will cross and they'll be in deep doo-doo.  Which....umm....brings me to the title of this post.


The Trinity River, the nasty 'ol Trinity River that runs through Dallas, the river that has signs posted along it's banks telling us to not eat any fish we catch there, is Houston's drinking water.  Dallas processes 135-145 million gallons of raw sewage every day, separates....well....you know, and sends it on downstream via the Trinity, ultimately to Lake Livingston.  From there Houston puts their Good Housekeeping Seal on it and pumps it right to their residents.  While this is probably pretty normal in the water biz, it just sounds so....Ewwwwww!


But then Houston is used to it.  You know how the beer brewers always brag in their commercials about their "perfect water", the ingredient that makes their beer the best in the world, blah blah blah?  Last time I looked there was a Budweiser brewery in Houston.  Right on the Houston ship channel.  So am I to infer the water for Budweiser's Houston brewery comes from....Ewwwwww!


All this reminds me of the time years ago listening to the radio as they reported a massive recall of Payday candy bars.  It seems the department that oversees health at food processing plants (FDA?) found an unacceptably high level of "rodent droppings" in the finished product.  A certain amount of rat poop is within tolerance it explained, but this batch was waaaaay off the chart.  At the moment I heard that report I was eating a Payday candy bar....Ewwwwww!


Some things you just don't want to know.  Who's with me?  I wonder if this is where the old saying "Ignorance is bliss" came from?  


Now forget about everything I just wrote and go have a nice weekend.  :)


S