Randomness

Well, it has been a while since I posted, and there is so much good stuff to blog about the last few days. This might be a long one!

1. I am tired of hearing about Michael Jackson, but I cannot help but read/watch/listen to all the reports about him. I think that shows a problem with us Americans. We cannot help but be entertained by things going bad for someone, even if we are complaining about the focus on this part or that part of someone's life. I blame this on TV and soap operas and 24-hour news and America's obsession with celebrity. I am sure there are other things to blame it on as well.

2. News is morbid. You could tell that there were prearranged obituaries, tributes, news stories, etc. on the death of everyone that died in the past few days. It seems morbid that journalism departments teach to have obituaries ready for the famous. It makes sense, but it is morbid.

3. I love going out to the farm. It is only 40 minutes from Texarkana, and is really a game ranch where, in the winter, you can pay to hunt, but in the summer, it is a nice retreat from the city. I do not love the inevitable sunburn (even though I use sunscreen ... just apparently not quick enough on Saturday) from spending time there. Baby buffaloes and wading in the Red River were highlights of the trip. Getting stuck in the sand was not a highlight, although it is cool to watch boys try to fix the situation (and be successful at getting one truck out without a tractor). It is just nice to relax and get out of town instead of laying around on a Saturday.

4. Plexiglass is a good fix for a broken window on a Sunday. Sometime Saturday or Sunday, some punk(s) decided it would be nice to throw a concrete chunk through one of my windows. I did not realize this until Sunday after church. Fortunately, two guys were coming over for the afternoon, and were kind enough to tell me what needed to be bought to fix the window and to fix it for me. I watched and made no suggestions (or maybe only one or two ... not many because I knew nothing about what was going on or should go on!). I held the wood while they did there thing once or twice without offering commentary or complaints. The end result is a plexiglass pane in the old frame for a total cost of $41 to repair (because we bought two tubes of sealant and a whole pack of finishing and siding nails even though very few were needed ... really was around $30 for the window and one tube of sealant). I am very grateful to have people around that can fix things like that for me!

5. My Pitchmen post seems kind of ironic now that Billy Mays has died. I do not think his death would have been as big a story as it was if Ed McMahon, Farrah Faucett and Michael Jackson had not died before him.

6. The sunburn from Saturday and spending all day Sunday in the heat watching my window get repaired left me dehydrated and sick. Instead of being able to take a sick day and rehydrate myself, I had to go to court yesterday. It was the sickest I have been in court to date. I was feeling horrible, but still had to put on a good front to be professional. Despite all of that, I won the hearing. Not because of any good lawyering on my part but because I was smart enough to point out enough law in my questioning for the judge to hang his hat on to keep from being overturned on appeal. It was not about the presentation yesterday as much as about knowing and demonstrating the law to the court. The worst part ... I did not get out of court until around 5:30.

7. If I do not slow down over the next two days, I am really going to be sick. I have succeeded in rehydrating (it seems), but now I just need to get over the nausea that goes along with sunburns + heat exposure.

8. I received my new custom stationery today. I am so excited about it that I wrote a random note to someone just so that I could send out one of the cards. If you receive a random card from me in the next few weeks, it is probably because I am excited about my stationery.

9. I had a random visit from a cousin I have not seen in over 10 years last week. It was nice to see her, but it added to the randomness of the week. Now that she has my phone number, maybe I will get to see her more. Anytime she comes to Texas, she has to pass through Texarkana, so why not stop in to see me!

10. Yesterday before I was rehydrated, I was boiling because of the sunburn. Today, after rehydrating, I am cold despite the heat radiating off the sunburn. I do not like my internal temperature to be out of whack!

Well there are my random thoughts/events from the past week. I even had to blog about Michael Jackson, adding to the oversaturated coverage of his death. I guess I am showing I am a true American in time for celebration of the 4th!