Wow – twenty years ago there was a terrible helicopter crash in Wisconsin and Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed. I was just a little kids, but I remember my mom and dad talking about it, in hushed tones. They were really upset about it.

Now that I know more about music and great guitar players, I can understand the impact of his death. Stevie Ray was a great guitarist and his story is intriguing. He had beaten his addiction to drugs and was on an upswing in his career and personal life and then got killed in a freak accident. What a terrible shame.

One of my girlfriends from back in college is meeting me for lunch today. I can’t wait to see Vicki again. It’s been too long!

She lives in Alabama but has to be in Nashville for a business convention this week. Today is the only day she can blow off some of the meetings during the convention to get together. So I’m heading downtown to have lunch at the Hard Rock with her. Gonna be a lot of fun downtown today!

Finally! A weekend with decent weather. This was the first Sunday with weather that let us get outside and enjoy ourselves without it being too hot or ruined by late afternoon thunderstorms. This summer has been unbelievably hot. Although it did get close to 90 degrees again today, with the clouds blocking the sun and a little breeze, it did not seem so hot.

We took advantage and went outside as much as possible. We even took a drive over to the lake and ended up that we crashed a news broadcast being taped at the lake. I just love Brent Frazier and he was doing a video clip from the lake about a suspected drowning victim that they are still searching for. I had no interest in being interviewed on camera, but it was nice to chat with Brent for a few minutes after he finished the taping.

Maybe you’ve heard of “stink bugs” but I have never heard of these nasty creatures until just today.

We were sitting out on the patio chatting and I felt something brush against my toes. I looked down and there was a funny looking, flat bug – about the size of my fingernail. I didn’t know if it would bite or sting, so I knocked it onto the ground and stepped on it.

Big mistake! OMG! That nasty bug stinks BAD when you smash it. I don’t know what you are supposed to do to kills these nasty bugs without smashing them and stinking up the place. But there has GOT to be a way!

A lot of the TV channels have adopted the scrolling text at the bottom of the screen to make viewers aware of breaking news and alerts.

Years ago, viewers would have to endure complete interruption of their preferred show for a talking head to read the script of breaking news on camera. But now, a lot of the breaking news is just a few words scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

It must be stressful programming in just the right words to scroll across the screen. It’s like having to write headlines as a teaser to get your attention but also to add just enough vital information to give viewers a snapshot of the situation.

At its worst, the scrolling words contain a typo, which broadcasts to the entire world that someone is not smart enough to spell the name correctly or never got enough education to recognize the difference in the meaning of words, such as “sum” versus “some.”