lanny's Blog

I spent  14 hours in Galveston where it  DIDN'T EVEN RAIN!!!!!!!!!!

Looters  were actually returning things to the stores.  Clearly they had over shot this hurricane by at  LEAST  3  categories. 

Good night all!!!!!!!! 

Where's  Louis Armstrong when you need him?    I am live from Galveston Island  starting at  5 AM  until  no longer needed.   I will be along the seawall somewhere.  If you are a Galveston  Fox friend  look me up  if the weather isn't too bad.

      I don't think the weather is going to be severe  but you never know.  Right now I am packing a bag  and getting ready to say good-bye to my family as I have for almost 30 years to go cover another  gulf coast  storm/depression/hurricane/...whatever. 

   See ya'll straight up at  5  tomorrow morning, only on Fox!!

>> >> Two patients limp into two different medical clinics with
>> The same complaint. Both have trouble walking and
>> Appear to require a hip replacement.
>>
>> The FIRST patient is examined within the hour,
>> Is x-rayed the same day and has a time booked for
>> Surgery the following week.
>>
>> The SECOND sees his family doctor after waiting 3 weeks
>> For an appointment, then waits 8 weeks to see a specialist,
>> Then gets an x-ray, which isn't reviewed for another week
>> And finally has his surgery scheduled for a month from then.
>>
>> Why the different treatment for the two patients?
>> -
>> -
>> -
>> -
>> -
>> The FIRST is a Golden Retriever.
>> The SECOND is a Senior Citizen.
>> Next time take me to a vet!
> _______________________________________________________
__________

Cancel your credit card before you die..........(hilarious!)

Now some people are really stupid!!!! Be sure and cancel your credit cards before you die.

This is so priceless, and so, so easy to see happening, customer service being what it is today.

A lady died this past January, and Citibank billed her for annual service charges on her credit card in February and then in March added late fees and interest on the previous monthly charge. The balance had been $0.00 when she died, but now the balance had grown to be somewhere around $60.00.

A family member placed a call to Citibank.

Here is the exchange :

Family Member: 'I am calling to tell you she died back in January.'

Citibank : 'The account was never closed and the late fees and charges still apply.'

Family Member : 'Maybe, you should turn it over to collections.'

Citibank : 'Since it is two months past due, it already has been.'

Family Member : So, what will they do when they find out she is dead?'

Citibank : 'Either report her account to frauds division or report her to the credit bureau, maybe both!'

Family Member : 'Do you think God will be mad at her?'

Citibank: 'Excuse me?'

Family Member : 'Did you just get what I was telling you - the part about her being dead?'

Citibank : 'Sir, you'll have to speak to my supervisor.'


Supervisor gets on the phone:

Family Member : 'I'm calling to tell you, she died back in January with a $0 balance.'

Citibank : 'The account was never closed and late fees and charges still apply.'

Family Member : 'You mean you want to collect from her estate?'

Citibank : (Stammer) 'Are you her lawyer?'

Family Member : 'No, I'm her great nephew.' (Lawyer info was given)  

Citibank: 'Could you fax us a certificate of death?'

Family Member : 'Sure.' (Fax number was given )


After they get the fax :

Citibank : 'Our system just isn't setup for death. I don't know what more I can do to help.'
Family Member : 'Well, if you figure it out, great! If not, you could just keep billing her. She won't care.'

Citibank: 'Well, the late fees and charges do still apply.' (What is wrong with these people?!?)

Family Member : 'Would you like her new billing address?'

Citibank : 'That might help...'

Family Member : ' Odessa Memorial Cemetery , Highway 129, Plot Number 69.'

Citibank : 'Sir, that's a cemetery !'

Family Member : 'And what do you do with dead people on your planet???


(Priceless!!)

  Yes   friends, as always, vacations ends to soon and mine was no exception.  Nothing really wild happened  while I was off for a week.  We all stayed home  and stayed cool  by the pool.  Slept til  8  every morning which is  4-5 hours later than normal and  stayed up late watching tv.  Honestly  what the hell are you people  watching at night.  BORING!!!   I tried watching everything I had heard good things about  and  NOTHING  was entertaining.  I was shocked to learn that  Desperate Housewives was still on the air  my god!!  Give it a rest. 

    Kids watched  Project Runway  ad  nauseum, seasons  1-4  ran  the whole time I was off.   Shear Genius is back and so is  Flipping  Out!    Watched LOTS of baseball.  So much so my family nearly  called  work to have them page me back to the newsroom  so they would not have to keep stepping over my  bloated  carcaus  parked in the den on the counch.  

   All in all I LOVE spending time with my family.  They are so  cute and so entertaining  and   so much fun.   I kept  up with the  blogging  and read  lots of blogs  throughout  the  vacation.  

  But it's all over now  and I found my self  re-introducing myself to co-workers who I felt I haven't seen in  2 weeks.  Alas, summer,  we knew you well!!!    

In just a few    minutes I will be live on the air  from  along  290  with our  web chat  on    everyoine;s  favorite  topic......."  stay-cations."   I just finished my  1 week  "  stay-vations "  and it was great.  Spent lots of time  with the family and friends.  Mostly out in the pool. 

    Catch the live chat and tell me  about your plans for a "  stay-cation." 

  Folks may as well  tune out  Don Imus  if  ya'll are going to get  offended  every time the man opens his mouth.  He is paid  HUGE  bucks to be offensive  and that's what he is going to do.  He is paid to deliver a product!   Howard Stern  is paid  millions to deliver a product at any cost!  

   Let go, tune out, and shut up  already.  If you don't like what you hear then  change channels.  Rude things are said about people all day long  on every street corner in every town.  He just happens to be on the network.   

     I  am  sure I know this  but I can't recall  off hand  why the  world series of college  baseball is played in  flippin  Omaha, Nebraska?  Who lives near there?  What a hardship for families  to have to  travel there for  3 weeks  to see the elmination rounds and then  go back for  the series.

   Can someone  clue me in? 

ABC News/Washington  Post  poll  asks  if the election were held  today  who would  be the next  President. 

Obama  48%       McCain   42%

Those McCain numbers  are  stunning  considering  he  really  just now started  campainging, I think.  Obama has been going at it  for  more than a year  and essentially they are neck and neck.  Talk about  a  come  from  behind!!!

  As I write this  my  oldest daughter is  off on her  Methodist  Youth  Camp  to  rehabilitate  homes  for those who can't afford  to make the repairs  themselves.  This is her  3rd such trip. 

         The first trip was to Beaumont to work on  Hurricane  Rita  homes, and the next year it was up to Lufkin to work on even MORE  Rita homes. 

    She was really kind of  iffy  about  going this time  but I told her that she is doing  God's work on earth  and that  you would meet  many strangers  who will be  praying for you. 

   She was  moved to tears  on  her  first two  trips  at the  sweetness, the  gifts of  water and food offered  by the poorest of the poor to the  kids  as a way of saying thank you.     

    She came back last year and said  that  the  lady who lived in the house she worked on  came out of the house for the first time  in   15  years  to  hug the children  and  give them some sweet  bread she had made.  She didn't leave her house for so long because  there  were   no  steps  from the front  door  to the  ground  and  she was horrified of falling  and breaking a bone.  She has no insurance and no means to get help even if she did.  The neighbors  had been  sending in groceries  all those years  because they too  were the poorest of the poor. 

    It amazes me  how we can do good  all over the world  and yet  we have  people like this living right under our noses. 

    So when you see  a  child  wearing a  youth mission  t-shirt, give them a pat on the back and tell them  thank you  for  helping  God  do his work for those who need it the most!

     Barack said it  over the weekend................according to his speech, half  of  all  African-American  children  grow up with no  father  present.    Any fool  can have a baby,  it  takes a man  to  raise a child and be  a father!

     That's   right.  I needed help.  I started out  with remote control   firmly gripped  in my hand.  I pre-set  the channels  on  4  for the Astros, and  34  for Rice.   Feeling great  about  2 great games on  Father's Day was more than I could  stand.  I was so psyched.   And here is where the story  turns  south.

     One by one, the Yankess start scoring  with naree  a  defense  from the Stros.  Change channels  to  34..........Fresno St.  was up  7-0  in the  3rd.......I quickly reach for a Motrin.

       Time passes.............Yankess up  now  11-0............Fresno St  up  11--0  in the  5th inning................now I am on the floor looking  for  heavy  pain killers..........Wife even  tries  flipping  on  NBC  hoping  that marathon  U.S. Open would help, but to no avail.  My condition  worsened. 

   Wife calls  medics  when I apparently slipped into a coma  and slithered out of my chair  after  4  agonizing hours of  the worst  baseball beating I have ever seen.    Medics  got me up  with an oxygen mask and a steady morphine drip just in time to see the closing  moments   with the  final score   Yankees....13--0,  and  Fresno St   16---5.   Seeing the distress I was in , the  medics  removed  all life  support  and let me  die  in  semi-peace.    Miraculously  I  cam to  and found that  I had been carried  to my  bed  upstairs.  I'm not sure what happened  next  but  I wound up finding  solace  when   60 Minutes'  Morley Safer  announced  that  the  Danish  are the happiest people on earth because they have little  or no expectations of anything good actually happening to them.

    In the future  when I watch sports, I will  embrace  the  Danes  and go into the games with little or no expectations  of anything good happening to my teams.

   Sad  isn't it!

    Happy  Frickin   Father's  Day.    

                                      ELMER L. "  SONNY"  GRIFFITH

                                              1933-2003

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