Candidates
Eight candidates for three positions can be very overwhelming. Reading introductions of the candidates for positions of Mayor and the City Commissioners Precinct 1 and 3 in the Mason County News has been helpful to what life experience they offer.
Reading life experience is very different from discerning motive for candidacy, a read-between-the-lines endeavor, except in reference to the incumbents whose past actions and words speak volumes.
Support
Commissioner Sue Pledger has a heart for this community, and has given many years of service including finding a rent free home, along with a group of friends, for the Mason Ministerial Alliance Food Bank.
Also, a number of prior attempts have been made to establish a nursing home in Mason, and to date, all of them have been unsuccessful for one reason or another.
Good Guy
My father was a generous man. He was always helping neighbors, and as a co-founder of the Unitarian Fellowship in Houston, might be on the roof one day, or fixing plumbing the next.
He was a conservative who could accept "the greenhouse effect", and lectured on it. He was an "Oil Man"
Italian Supermarket Bread
You know that yummy Italian bread that you can get at some supermarkets around Central Texas? The fat, golden, sesame-sprinkled loaves? Well, you can make those right here in your own home, and they aren’t that difficult!
Ingredients:
4 cups King Arthur All-Purpose Flour (or similar)
2 tablespoons of potato flour or ¼ cup of dried potato flakes
¼ cup Baker’s Special Dry Milk or any nonfat dry milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons i ...
Ann who?
No doubt you’ve heard the joke about the kid who asked his dad about the pictures of wanted criminals in the post office. When told they were bad guys and the police were looking for them, the kid said, “Why didn’t they hang onto them when they took their pictures?”
Since you’ve heard it, I won’t tell it here, but the question seems valid from an adolescent, uninformed, naïve point of view.
Out On a Limb….
Angry “harrumphs” in our crazed, crossways world drown out “hurrahs,” hands down.
Flag-waving optimists now droop where they formerly dared.
If Johnny came marching home today, a substantial element might try to send him back. (In New York City, someone posted a sign directed at newcomers: “If you can make it there, go back.”)
Unquestionably, topics formerly sacrosanct are now “under further review,” with no resolution in sight.
Baked Chicken & Rice
Well, you know how I love the “traditional” dishes. This one reminds of Easter or every Lutheran Covered dish luncheon I ever went to. It isn’t one of Roddie’s favorites, he isn’t a big rice fan but every once in awhile he appeases me. Sadly, families don’t get together or get along like they used.
I have spent too much time listening to the weatherman this week. We need rain. I can’t turn on the outside water system until I repair the faucets that froze. We need rain. The Spring flowers could use a drink. They are pretty in some areas but very sparse in others.
Rat.
Dead in the trap.
That is that.
And a giant rat at that.
Now barking dogs.
Three in the morning.
Something’s up.
It’s the middle of the night.
You tiptoe out on the porch.
A surreal world awaits.
Nighttime lit by a streetlight.
Above, a conglomeration of stars.
Nobody around.
Neighbors sleeping in dark houses.
All is quiet.
Except for an eighteen-wheeler in the distance.
And there it is.
Bigger than a breadbox.
Bigger than a rat.
Bigger than a ca ...
Please Stop - My Head Hurts!
Politics, at almost any level, is fraught with disagreements and differing points of view. Even people who work at the same job, attend the same church and vote in the same primary often find themselves disagreeing heatedly when they discuss political matters.
As we've seen during the last two decades, the political divide continues growing.
