Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• There's a fire going on at an old house near the courthouse this morning and, although the picture on the Messenger's website doesn't look that bad, Decatur Fire Department has called for all sorts of help from neighboring fire departments. And, based upon scanner traffic, they are extremely concerned with firefighter safety (which might be due to the recent news of firefighter deaths.)
• Drownings over the holidays: (1) A 21 year old at Lake Grapevine, (2) a 27 year old at Possum Kingdom lake (which caused the fireworks display to be cancelled), and (3) a 7 year old at Joe Pool Lake.  And a 20 year old woman was left in the water for hours in the dark before found. 
• Told ya: Dwight Howard decides not to sign with the Dallas Mavericks.  And one rumored reason that free agents don't want to come to Dallas is that ol' South racism still exists here. So who did the Mavericks send to visit with Howard in LA to try to bring him Dallas? Six white guys: "Cuban, Mark Cuban, Dirk Nowitzki, president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson, head coach Rick Carlisle, athletic trainer Casey Smith and director of analytics Roland Beech."
• There's a political rally in Austin today by a pro-life group. Among the speakers is Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas. Is that guy running for office somewhere? 
• Watching the Wimbledon finals -- men's or women's -- on the 4th of July weekend in the morning is always fantastic. 
• How more people didn't die in the 777 crash in San Francisco is amazing. That plane got so close to cart-wheeling on the runway and, had it, all of them would probably be dead. 
• I ended up laying "four square" with the Kids In The House over the weekend. Unfortunately, the four squares were set up right by a curb going into a parking lot. As I should have expected, I ended up falling into the parking lot.
• As I'm on my back, with two faces staring down at me, my first thought at my age was "did I break anything?" Fortunately, I just ended up with a scraped hand since I broke my fall better than Emmitt Smith ever did. 
• So those in charge of Wise County's Vampire No Refusal Weekend, what are the stats? 
• Rick Perry makes a "big announcement" today at 1:00 a.m. I bet he's nutty enough to make another presidential run. 
• For some reason I watched a portion of the Arkansas/Texas 1969 classic game on the Longhorn Network this weekend. The crowning moment for the Longhorns was a shocking pass on fourth and short with about four minutes remaining. I looked up the stats on the game and learned Texas threw only 10 passes and had two of those intercepted. Oh, how the game has changed. 
• No arrests in the murder of that little Saginaw girl? 
• From the Update:  "The Decatur City Council will discuss a $261,500 incentive package for 'Project Walter' . . . . " What the heck is that?