Bag of Randomness
Monday, July 8, 2025

I'd love to have a copy of that book, even if it is a reprint. 
But I'd rather have a new job of all things.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Mom Game podcast on local television. I’m not sure how long Julie Dobbs and Emily Jones (both local sports personalities) have been on TV, but last night they had Troy Aikman on the show, via the phone. Come on, Troy, you couldn’t do a Zoom call to help the girls out? I’m kidding, that really doesn’t annoy me. Aikman talked about how he would and always will open the door for his daughters, and how one daughter used to make a game of who could open the door first for the other when she was younger. Aikman shared a moment when he told his little girl that it may be a game now, but it doesn’t matter how old you get, I will always open the door for you. He also added that if any guy wouldn’t be willing to hold the door open for her, then he isn’t worth her time. I thought he had some good stuff to share, especially about being a divorced father of daughters. Hey, I can certainly relate. Divorce keeps my daughter away from me more than I would like, and I often worry that I don’t get to spend enough “regular time” around her to share some fatherly wisdom.

I literally cannot remember a time when Clarice Tinsley has not been broadcasting the news on KDFW. I still remember being impressed when the station held a special 25-year celebration for her, thinking how close I was to that number in age and how that was an enormous amount of time. Now, as I approach 50 (next month) and she celebrates her 46th year at the station, I laugh at my young adult self for thinking 25 years was a grandious amount of time. The perception of time is a lot different after you’ve lived enough life to actually have some “real” perspective to look back on. Sure, it’s a significant amount of time, but I wasn’t able to comprehend or appreciate time until I realized how I have more days behind me than in front of me. And I often think about my father, how he already spent 28 years in the military and didn’t have his first child until half a decade later. He had an entire life before he knew me, and all I knew of him was the last third of his life.

It’s the 50th anniversary of Jaws. It still amazes me that the film premiered in Dallas, of all places, because the Medallion Theater was a good luck theater for 29-year-old Stephen Spielberg. He was pacing at the back of the theater at the time, trying to interpret the audience’s reactions. Two years later, he came back to the Medallion to hold the first test run showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But I mention all that just to say that despite hearing this fact multiple times, it finally registered with me. Jaws was the very first summer blockbuster film. And, it all started in Dallas. Crazy, huh?

Random advice I read in a newsletter I thought worthy to share:

If you’re trying to retain new knowledge, create space for insight. This might mean stepping away from the probleIt’m, walking outside, getting sleep, or doing something unrelated so your subconscious can connect the dots.

When the solution finally hits, you’ll not only solve the problem, you’ll remember it longer, too, and be able to apply those lessons to other problems you want to solve.

It’s not even just insight, but there have been plenty of times I just wanted to complete or wrap something up and couldn’t figure it out or get things right, and stayed stuck there in frustration. But over the years, I’ve learned sometimes I just need to step away for ten minutes or even go do something else or sleep on it, and when I return, I’m shocked at how quickly I was able to wrap it all up because all I did was take a break and get a fresh perspective.

It’s a darn shame about all the flooding in Central Texas, especially all the missing children. The Guadalupe River rose 26 feet in just 45 minutes. Amazing. When asked about the weather forecast, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tried to get in front of the news and blasted the outdated technology behind the government’s weather alert system, “We needed to renew this ancient system that has been left in place with the federal government for many, many years, and that is the reforms that are ongoing there.”

What she and the administration won’t tell you is that the staff and resources were adequate until the new Trump Administration and DOGE took an axe to the National Weather Service to fight what they consider the false climate change narrative.

Texas officials were also quick to pounce on the NWS.

You’re going to see a lot more stuff like this creep into the news in different forms. Eventually, something regarding food and water is going to be overlooked for the same reasons, as will many medical and healthcare issues.

Dallas renames lakes along the Trinity River to honor Native American tribes

This entry was posted in Personal. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.