But as I sat on my couch Monday night and watched the thunderstorm literally spin in place on the radar for what seemed like hours, I knew that the things I'd have to see in the morning would rival the flooding from last year.

Actually, I think it was worse. I heard story after story about people waking up the sounds of water rushing through their house. I mean, that is like Hollywood bad dream movie kind of stuff.

I cannot even begin to fathom what it would be like to experience that sort of thing.

The biggest reason I think this was a worse flood event was nobody knew this was coming. Last year, in Wranglers Retreat and the East Side for that matter, people had hours if not days of advance notice.

This was an overnight event... and as it started getting bad, KFDX 3 didn't even break in with any kind of weather warning or update. Flash Flood warnings don't get broadcasted out like a Tornado would or anything.

In the span of probably 2 hours... it went from raining hard, to flowing water over everything and just kept coming up and up. The power of nature on display for sure.

It is not something that I will soon forget nor will I ever take for granted the power of a thunderstorm.

But... now that the pricing structure has come out, I'm having a bit of sticker shock.

Like many of the folks who have been paying attention, and many who haven't. The bill to play a round out there is going to be a bitter pill to swallow.

Now... because it was a slow day in the office, I created this handy illustration to show the prices you'll pay at the new course.

And let me be perfectly clear about one thing... this is a totally NEW course. It may be on the same ground as the Weeks Park course I played in college in a t-shirt and flip flops once or twice... this is a truely high caliber golf course that will be better than many of the offerings in the metroplex even.

That being said... I'm going to have a hard time coughing up $50 on a Friday morning to play with a cart. That is a bit much if you ask me. And I think that they are going about it all wrong in the first place.

Sure, there is talk about running specials and whatnot... but they should have just come out right yesterday and said:

"Those are the going to be the prices... but we're going to have a first month special of $25-30 anytime any day to show off the course.

That would get a ton of people out there to play and see if they think it's worth the $50 for a weekend tee time. And who knows, maybe that'll happen before they open. But ther sure are a lot of people around town who are pissed off at that price structure.

I can't tell you how many times today I've heard "Well, I can play for 1/2 that at River Creek" ... blah blah blah. This isn't going to be like playing there. It's going to be like playing one of the nice courses.

I've got a lot of ideas about what's going on, and I'll share some of those with you laters.

Pudge is a Yankee.... and I just threw up in my mouth a little.

The New York Yankees have found a replacement for Jorge Posada.

On the disabled list for the second time this year, Posada was trying to rehabilitate his shoulder enough to come back as a designated hitter or first baseman this season. But after the Yankees acquired outfielder Xavier Nady in a trade with Pittsburgh on Saturday, they determined it was best for Posada to have surgery now, general manager Brian Cashman said Monday.

In my book... Pudge joins the traitorous likes of Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and countless others who have joined forces with the evil empire. Not that I wish ill will on anybody or anything, but I don't want the Yankers to make the playoffs even more now.

Sure, he's only a stop-gap until Jorge Posada comes back next season, but that's not the point.

Guess I can give away my Pudge bobble-head doll now. Maybe I'll put it in my garage sale coming soon.

"Man, it smells like some stinky burnt popcorn over here."

It took me a minute, but I had to fess up that it wasn't the popcorn she was smelling.... it was me.

Jason Palmer/Times Record News
A Texas Forest Service air tanker helicopter drops water on the head of a large wildfire west of Hwy. 25 and Bradley Ranch Road near Kadane Corner. The fire consumed more than 800 acres of land before area fire departments brought it under control.

That was probably my fave. shot ever of the Forest Service doing anything at a fire. Kinda made it worth standing out in the blazing sun trying to pick a good location for that shot.

Nothing like putting yourself in harms way just for the sake of a photograph. Mercifully, the fire wasn't really anywhere near where I was standing.

I wouldn't have wanted that water dropped on my head though. There aren't any special fire-fighting chemicals in that water or anything. It's just plain mud water. Drawn from either Beaver Creek or some stock tank. Gross.

Not only will that knock down the fire, it'll probably prevent any re-growth for a length of time similar to Mt. St. Helens.

Hopefully the burn ban will keep people from being stupid and burning 1000 acres, but you never know.

But until today... for the last week I haven't been able to shake from one of the glorious carnal cravings of all time.

Sugar Babies.

Time to get back on track with salads for lunch and healthy foods for the rest of the day. I should probably get back on a bike too.

Not that I expect weight to start vanishing just from the lack of a daily sugary caramel candy, but it couldn't hurt right.

Yesterday, the Publisher Bossman came over and said something to the effect of I'm his "blog stud" or words to that effect. I was shocked, frankly, I hadn't even cared about this blog in a lot longer than the 2 months I've been absent.

I'm pretty sure I've written a grand total of 3 entries in as many months. None the less, my blog page still has 2x as many page views as the next most popular and 3-4x the rest of them.

That means, there are like 50 of you that check daily to see if I have written anything. Or maybe there are hundreds checking every few days... I dunno.

It has been a busy few months actually... a lot of stuff going on in my life. I'll be sharing some of that with you, as well as some of the great photos that you've come to hopefully expect from me.

Publisher Bossman said yesterday.... "Well what to I have to do to get you writing blogs again, kick you in the butt?!"

Even easier than that... prove to me that I'm appreciated. My readers have done that it would seem.

I'll be 29 years old... woot.

Nope, 29 and the countdown to 30 begins. That's pretty scary if you ask me. Seems like just a few years ago I was graduating from college... then I remember, oh yeah, I had a long college run. Whoops.

The big 29... not that there is really any significance in that number or anything.

Just another year going by until I get a rocking chair. :-)

That's me in the photo by the way....

But maybe just maybe it'll charge up my batteries enough to feel like blogging again. We'll see. I'm getting ready to officially launch myself into a major work-related project soon, so maybe the creative juices will start flowing again.

Everybody have a safe rest of the week... and stay tuned.

Not that it came as a big surprise or anything, just something that is worth talking about.

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- The world's first attack aircraft to employ stealth technology is slipping quietly into history.

The inky black, angular, radar-evading F-117, which spent 27 years in the Air Force arsenal secretly patrolling hostile skies from Serbia to Iraq, will be put in mothballs next month in Nevada.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, which manages the F-117 program, will have an informal, private retirement ceremony Tuesday with military leaders, base employees and representatives from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The last F-117s scheduled to fly will leave Holloman on April 21, stop in Palmdale, California, for another retirement ceremony, then arrive on April 22 at their final destination: Tonopah Test Range Airfield in Nevada, where the jet made its first flight in 1981.

The government has no plans to bring the fighter out of retirement, but could do so if necessary.

"I'm happy to hear they are putting it in a place where they could bring it back if they ever needed it," said Brig. Gen. Gregory Feest, the first person to fly an F-117 in combat, during the 1989 invasion of Panama that led to the capture of dictator Manuel Noriega.

The Air Force decided to accelerate the retirement of the F-117s to free up money to modernize the rest of the fleet. The F-117 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor, which also has stealth technology.

Fifty-nine F-117s were made; 10 were retired in December 2006 and 27 since then, the Air Force said. Seven of the planes have crashed, one in Serbia in 1999.

Stealth technology used on the F-117 was developed in the 1970s to help evade enemy radar. While not invisible to radar, the F-117's shape and coating greatly reduced its detection.

The F-117, a single-seat aircraft, was designed to fly into heavily defended areas undetected and drop its payloads with surgical precision.

A total of 558 pilots have flown the F-117 since it went operational. They dub themselves "bandits," with each given a "bandit number" after their first flight.

Feest, who is Bandit 261, also led the first stealth fighter mission into Iraq during Desert Storm in 1991. He said the fire from surface-to-air missiles and anti-aircraft guns was so intense that he stopped looking at it to try to ease his fears.

"We knew stealth worked and it would take a lucky shot to hit us, but we knew a lucky shot could hit us at any time," he said.

Incredibly, not one stealth was hit during those missions, he said.

This was one of the highlights of the October 2007 Sheppard AFB Air Show for me. I have always been fascinated by the stealth technology.

I have always loved going to air shows and seeing this crazy looking black bird fly around. It's going to be a sad day to have all 52 remaining F-117s in the middle of the Nevada desert. The thing is... the Air Force can probably have all of them back in the air and in combat within 48 hours if need be.

Of course, the plane that's replacing the F-117 is the ridiculously cool F-22 Raptor. Folks at the air show were lucky enough to get a glimpse of the capability of the F-22 during the flight demonstration...

Which, by the way, was probably the coolest thing I've ever seen in the history of air show history.

So... in honor of this sweet sweet bird, here are a few extra photos from the Air Show... unless the Air Force saves a few of them for demonstrations... it may be the last time we'll ever see it in the air.

Enjoy...

So, I'm going to take an extended break from here and try to figure out just what I want to do with my little space on this website. I'll probably just turn it into a straight photo blog and leave the personal stuff of my life out of it.

Maybe, I dunno... we'll see.

Ever since the publisher came over to my work area and grilled me about my participation in a forum website based on the online comment section of the TRN, I just haven't felt like contributing to the blog space on here.

So... maybe one of these days this week I'll think of something.

Stanford Univ. will eliminate tuition for families making less than $100,000.

That's some kinda deal....

PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) -- Attending Stanford University next year will be a lot more affordable for some undergraduate students.

Stanford tuition is expected to rise to $36,000 in the fall. Room and board will cost about $11,000. About a third of the university's 6,700 undergraduates are expected to qualify for the tuition break.

Well... it didn't take long to find a better story....

Families earning less than $100,000 a year will no longer have to pay tuition for their sons and daughters attending Stanford, university officials announced today.

In addition, families earning less than $60,000 a year will no longer have to contribute to tuition, the costs of room and board or other expenses.

The new program also eliminates the need for student loans.

Current combined tuition and room and board for undergraduates is $45,606 a year, with the tuition being $34,800.

"We are committed to ensuring that Stanford ask parents and students to contribute only what they can afford for an education we believe is one of the best in the world," Stanford President John Hennessy said.

"By devoting more resources to financial aid, we seek to underscore what has long been the case -- that no high school senior should rule out applying to Stanford because of cost. We understand how families face serious financial pressures, and we are doing all we can to assist them."

Stanford will allocate $114 million to its financial aid program for the 2008-09 academic year. To help pay for the tuition assistance, the university is increasing its payout from its endowment to 5.5 percent. Stanford also plans to double the fund-raising goal of its current The Stanford Challenge campaign to $200 million.

Three of every four Stanford undergraduates now receive some sort of financial aid from the university.

There was no immediate estimate from Stanford officials of how many students will be affected by the changes in the tuition program. Stanford is one of the few private universities with a "needs-blind" admission policy, accepting students regardless of their ability to afford tuition.

"Although Stanford's tuition has gone up over the last five years, thanks to our increasingly generous financial aid program, families with incomes of less than $150,000 will find a Stanford education much more affordable than it was five years ago," Stanford Provost John Etchemendy said.