Firefighters are looking to the skies for muchneeded rain this week as crews continue battling wildfires across the state. Fires reported Sunday by the Texas A&M Forest Service were being fought in Brown, Taylor, Wilbarger, Llano, Schleicher and San Saba counties.

Every time I turn on an appliance these days, I hold my breath, hoping it’ll work okay. Things don’t last like they used to--- a recurring theme in my columns. From the responses I’ve received, it’s not just me. This current experience doesn’t involve an appliance, but a plumbing fixture. Several years ago, our long-time, local plumber was so swamped--- pun intended---that we had to call someone else for a problem that couldn’t wait. I had no experience with this other company, and little in the way of recommendations. I live in fear that our regular plumber will retire, and the experience of calling someone else that one time completely justified my fear. Since then, other plumbing companies have opened up in Bosque County--- and some have good reviews--- hopefully not from the owner’s sister-in-law’s first cousin, twice removed. But my first choice will always be our regular guy---until he quits on us. It’s good doing business with people you trust.

I was a single young man when I went to the country to minister to the rural folks. (In more than a few ways they ministered to me.) A few times I had my fiancée with me. The people liked that. My wife to be was young and sweet and friendly. When she came, she shared a room with Josephine Thorpe who was a single lady taking care of her aging parents.

Amid the real and overwhelming problems facing this State and Nation, I surprise myself by feeling even the slightest urge to respond to the May 11 Letter to the Editor signed by “Cal Schlumpf.” But I am responding because that letter rambles through a series of claims relating to the writer’s perceived Constitutional rights, without proving any.

A year ago this month, the United States Postal Service published an ambitious but achievable 10-year strategic plan, Delivering for America. The plan established a route to building a Postal Service that is financially strong and consistently delivers on-time for the American public, our top customer.

The recent leak of Supreme Court documents in regard to Roe v Wade sets a dangerous precedent that should not be ignored. The ninth amendment was established in the bill of rights to ensure the protection of the people’s right to freedoms not otherwise specified in the first eight amendments. It is the basis on which we have established the right to healthcare, the right to freedom from slavery, the right to naturalized citizenship and the right to vote.

Let me tell you about Tuffy’s Critter. Our dog has a pet possum. It lives under our breezeway deck where we’ve hosted generations of this possum’s lineage. Possums don’t bother me. They eat bugs, don’t get or spread rabies---apparently due to a very low body temperature. They’re marsupials, as you probably learned in elementary school, and they’re fascinating creatures, what with the pouches and all. They look positively ferocious, but definitely don’t attack, as Tuffy learned firsthand. “Playing possum” isn’t some old wives’ tale. When threatened or anxious, their BP plummets (like mine with certain prescription meds) and they pass right out. It’s rather horrifying to watch. I trapped one by mistake several years ago and had one heckuva time waking him up to release him. With horses, possums can be a problem if they use your hay as a latrine. But we don’t need to worry about that.

Traditionally, each local United Methodist church provides its minister with a furnished house called a parsonage. As you might expect the quality of these parsonages with their furnishings were not always equal and still aren’t.

I was finally able to visit my kids/grands. It was great, but didn’t go entirely as planned. Things in life rarely do. A snowstorm in Utah and high winds in Denver required cutting my time short in one place and spending longer in the other. So much for treating kids exactly equal. I returned home last week to the obligatory mountain of dirty manlaundry. The inevitability of this repeating event was apparently hidden in the fine print of the marriage contract. I always considered it negotiable. Guess not. I’ve tried to negotiate it for years now with no luck whatsoever. I keep hoping one day to return to no pile of dirty duds, a hope that nonetheless gives me something to look forward to, however futile.

Texas has the fourth-lowest nurse-to-population ratio in the country, with only 9.25 nurses per 1,000 residents, according to a recent report by the comptroller’s office. The state’s aging population, along with the COVID-19 pandemic, has put increased pressure on all categories of nursing.