The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. government can’t pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our government’s reckless fiscal policies . . . Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that “the buck stops here.” Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

Americans deserve better indeed. The thoughtful politician who uttered those words?

Barack H. Obama on March 20, 2006 as he prepared to vote against raising the debt ceiling at the request of the Bush administration.

...so God can look down and watch His team play.

It all came tumbling down today. Just like Jerry said it would. I tried hard to be bitter, but the new stadium is just so awesome.

But that doesn’t make watching Texas Stadium reduced to rubble any easier. I avoided watching all day. And even when I thought I had it down and was ready to watch, it took my breath away.

It’s hard to describe why an old sports venue evokes such emotion. Guess it doesn’t have to be old, I felt the same way about Reunion Arena when it returned to dust. But I guess it has to do with decades of recollections.

From high school in the 70′s when the stadium was brand new, going to watch the Cowboys play the Vikings. My friend’s girlfriend was part of the halftime show and we had a double date set up for after. We sat at the very top of the end zone.

To watching my number two son play a little league football game there when he was about 9 or 10. The Princess was just a baby but even she seemed fascinated by the place and watching her Bubba play ball there.

To the many high school playoff games there, Westlake winning a state championship, Plano winning and losing hard fought playoff games. And probably the most famous (locally) high school game of all – 1994′s Tyler John Tyler vs. Plano East. East’s improbable comeback and the even more improbable result.

So many memories. Too many to chronicle.

Farewell Texas Stadium. You’ll live forever in our hearts and on Youtube.

Most of all I thank God for every extra moment He gives me on this earth to spend loving the five gifts He has given me: My wife and my four children. He and I both know I don’t deserve them.

Can’t say it enough, even if I don’t say it out loud near often enough. You know who you are.

So I’ve been off blogging. Searching for something worthwhile to blog about. Feeling all uninteresting and stuff.

One day a few weeks ago an idea hit me as I was watching the finale of  NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” show while scarfing down a chicken fried steak or something equally fattening and brushing the droppings off my “crumb catcher”……I could do that. Or could I?

Like many Americans I am overweight. And not by a little bit. Suffice it to say at this point that I could drop an easy hundred and barely make the healthy range of the BMI charts.

So in the coming weeks and months stay tuned for all the gory details in my quest for Big Looserdom, starting tomorrow with the starting metrics. Esposa’s going to help me measure tonight. I had toyed with the idea of photos, but will spare my readership the mental image. I’ll provide the measurements and you can create your own mental.

Until tomorrow. Tough out.

This video combines three of my favorites. Two artists, Stoney Larue & Gary Stewart and a song “Empty Glass”. This tune is one of my all time fave Gary Stewart songs. It has that melancholy regretful hopelessness that makes country music great. Simple, haunting lyrics that make a barroom song something more artsy than your average boot scootin’ boogie song.

I got turned on to Stoney Larue listening to the local “hard country” format radio station when he released “Oklahoma Breakdown” and I’ve found a few more of his songs that I like. I was actually looking for “Texas Moon” to share tonight but found this instead.

It’s a great rendition of Gary Stewart’s original which I heard Gary perform live several years back. Stoney doesn’t do the guitar solo here, but Gary did and I discovered what an amazing guitar player/musician he actually was.

So on a rainy North Texas night grab a bottle of whiskey, a pack of smokes, and maybe a box of Kleenex for this one.

I’m out.

So many words....

Still not sure what it all means. But hope to be back posting new stuff soon.

My parents were big fans of Waylon’s early music. I became a fan of his “outlaw” music in the 70′s. He came to the Black Eyed Pea Jamboree in Athens in 1976 or so with Willie. I’m not sure the Spanish Trace Inn has ever seen the likes of Waylon and his gang, and probably never will.

This selection combines both old and outlaw Waylon, with a bonus of an outstanding pedal steel guitar line, as all my faves usually do.

Ever notice that it’s always the old fat guy on pedal steel guitar? I think I gotta learn me some of that.

Mr. Stephenson also is seeking to overhaul AT&T’s marketing to make wireless the priority. The next step, he said, is to do away with a requirement that customers have AT&T’s home-phone service to qualify for discounts on TV or broadband Internet services. Being a wireless customer should be enough, he said.

“We have 77 million wireless customers and 30 million consumer phone lines,” Mr. Stephenson said in a recent interview at AT&T’s headquarters in Dallas, where he moved the company last summer. “Which customer base would you rather work from? We tend to come at this backwards.”

Nice to see the dinosaurs adapting to the world around them this time around. If AT&T can do the arithmetic maybe there is still hope for broken down old equipment manufacturers to make their way into the 21st century.

The really funny thing is The Intimidator (formerly known as The Esposa) and I just decided to forgo a land line and go 100% wireless at our house. We have five cellular devices and have dwindled to a single wired telephone in the house.

Now I’m headed off to AT&T to shop for my discount.

Henry and I were close to the same age and were close when we were younger. But as we grew up, living in different locales, we drifted apart as cousins old enough to drive and avoid those nasty family get togethers are wont to do. It was actually my younger brother who grew closer to Henry in adulthood since they lived in the same area.

It takes an adult perspective to understand that family get togethers were a good thing. That’s why the picture below is so precious. Henry came over last year to a party we were having here at the house. It was the first time I had seen him in years and he looked great. Looking so much like his Dad in his adulthood.

L to R: Luther, Myownself, Brother Reggie and Cousin Henry

And today, he’s gone.

Rest in peace cousin.

They played this song from his Troubadour album which got me to thinking about what makes that Texas honky tonk sound. Some feel like the fiddle (that’s violin for you Yankees & Canadians) is the quintessential instrument in country music, but my vote goes to the Hawaiian Steel Guitar.

This song features an extended steel guitar solo, more so on the recorded version than this live performance, but good enough to get the drift.

Something about George Strait and a twanging steel guitar that makes me want to scoot my boots around the dance floor at the Broken Spoke with the Esposa.

Enjoy.