http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx recent pleonast.com entries by user mikejohnsontx en-us http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=617248 Dallas, TX , December 31, 2008 A seven year old boy was at the center of a county courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him. The boy had a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulation requiring that family unity be maintained to the highest degree possible. The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried and said that they also beat him. After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him. After two recesses to check legal references and confer with the child welfare officials, the judge gra... 2009-01-09 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=613820 2008-12-29 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=609996 Once upon a time, a guy asked a girl, "Will you marry me?" The girl said, "NO!" And the guy lived happily ever after and rode motorcycles and went fishing and hunting and played golf a lot and left the toilet seat up and farted whenever he wanted. THE END 2008-12-16 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=608867 Is there a sound church in Hico or Hamilton? Or do I need to go to Stephenville? 2008-12-12 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=606483 To answer his question, the parade was fun, albeit cold. I don't know how good Euless's parade of lights is, but Grapevine's is greatness. Some of the floats, (i.e. tractor trailers,) were very intricate, and obviously took many people, many hours. I hauled the Heritace elementary school kids. We have several million dollars of cargo insurance, but I'm not sure it would have covered a trailer load of school kids. They seemed to enjoy riding on an 18 wheeler, with only some of them complaining of getting splinters from the wood deck boards. And now...the greatest. Commercial. Ever. 2008-12-05 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=605707 And it still looks good. 2008-12-03 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=604955 I will be driving one of the trucks in this parade. Parade of Lights illuminates Historic Downtown Grapevine December 4, 2008 7:00 PM Thousands of merrymakers will witness an enchanting display of more than 100 colorfully lighted floats that will pass through Historic Downtown Grapevine. Rolling to the tune of numerous marching bands playing holiday music, the Grapevine Parade of Lights is North Texas’ largest lighted Christmas parade. The parade starts at Main St. and Vine St. and heads north on Main St. to Wall St. The parade is free and open to the public 2008-12-01 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=601003 We got our Suburban in January, for a variety of reasons. For instance, keeping all our camping gear out of the rain, accessing a little known spot to camp that necessitates a 4x4, and my Ford Ranger was too small to pull the boat. We bought used, so we wouldn't have any payments, but even so, I've become very adept at moderating my use of the accelerator pedal, lest I flush too much coin down the intake manifold. But, lately, I feel like I've been given a reprieve. Before, I would creep onto the freeway like a little old grandpa, but now, WOW!! I can accelerate!!! WOOOHOO!!! And it doesn't cost my firstborn, which is nice, since I'm kinda getting used to him being around. 2008-11-19 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=600431 more animals 2008-11-17 http://www.pleonast.com/user/mikejohnsontx?l=5&entryID=599026 I pulled this from an article on Yahoo today."Some particles within the pollution cloud, such as soot, absorb sunlight and heat the air. That has led to a steady melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which are the source of most of the major rivers on the continent, the report said."skip a couple of paragraphs "At the same time, the brown clouds have also helped mask the full impact of global warming by helping to cool the earth's surface and tamp down rising temperatures by between 20 to 80 percent, the study said. That's because some of the particles that make up the clouds reflect sunlight and cool down the air." 2008-11-13