Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• Steve Jobs resignation from Apple can only be seen as an anticipatory obituary for a man who has battled cancer over the last few years. (And I still love the iPhone and long for an iPad or Macbook Air.)
• Don't look now, but the Rangers lead over the Angels has shrunk to 2 1/2 games. (It was at 7 about a week ago.)
• Ok, the first softball practice is under my belt. I stand in front of juries all the time, but I'm not sure I've ever been as nervous as standing in front of all those girls and their parents. 
• "This might be a little tricky" -- My thoughts when a simple "play catch with your partner" drill turned into a war zone of errant softballs. 
• I don't think I've got any problem parents -- at least not yet. (One parent, who seemed really into girls softball, asked me if the league used "designated pitchers." I told him I didn't know when I was really thinking, "What's the heck is a designated pitcher?") 
• Oh, and some of you softball gurus out there, tell me what the "Look Back" rule is.
• How do I know Hannity, Grace and Sheriff Joe are putting on a persona? The same way that I can spot a bad actor in a movie.
• A guy who was stopped for DWI-Third Or More in Decatur and received eight years in prison, had his appeal denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals yesterday. (Underlying opinion.)
• Same thing happened in this Bridgeport assault case.
• The Bridgeport pre-parole facitlity, which employs about 60 people, had its contract extended yesterday.
• The Tom-Bishop-Will-He-Be-Forced-To-Drive-A-Pickup Saga won't be answered until Monday at the earliest. All the Commissioners are out of town at some type of legislative training (which might be a little excessive in its own right.)  Edit: Commissioner Harry Lamance is in town 
• The Update has a story of some kid who burglarized a Decatur home and stole, among other things, a Yorkie. The cops probably caught him when he returned the dog after a couple of hours of constant yelping. 
• The media loves to track a hurricane. The process always reminds me of a line from the Simpsons: "Better than the act. Better than the memory. The moment of . . . . anticipation."
• And I keep singing, "Come on, Irene" instead of "Come on, Eileen."