W e do most things around here ourselves but have our limitations. There are things Zack won’t do if he can possibly avoid them. I suppose we’re all like that. This is a prudent approach when one isn’t particularly adept at certain plumbing or electrical jobs –where things can quickly go south– become messy or dangerous or leave us without water or power. Sometimes Zack stoops so low as to play the age card. That doesn’t wash well, considering all that chain sawing and manly ranch stuff he does around here. But those are things he enjoys –which makes all the difference.

I n a word: Yes. Both designate the same period of time based on the same common starting point.

A standoff at an Eagle Pass park continues as the Department of Homeland Security has sent a second letter to Gov. Greg Abbott demanding access to the Rio Grande park that is now under state control.

For months, there has been concerted bipartisan efforts in the United States Senate to pass a bill to stem the flow of migrants at our southern border. This bipartisan bill makes it harder for migrants to seek asylum, makes it harder to use parole as a way to allow migrants to temporarily remain in the United States, and introduces a mechanism to effectively close down the border on days when crossings are high. The Far Right does not like the bill because it does not go far enough, the Far Left does not like the bill because it goes too far. But the bill had the bipartisan support of the middle. It was a needed start.

C . S.

C ontinuing our series on how religion determined the names of our years and months, let’s trace how the names of gods became the names of every day of our week. Who knew that when the Vikings invaded England in 793 AD and brought their Norse gods with them, those gods’ names would find their way into the English language and morph into what we call the days of our week.

W hether you consider yourself religious or not, religion is very much a part of your everyday life. Last week we reviewed how each of the world’s major religions number the years differently.

I ’m writing this toward the end of the latest cold spell. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to see a 70-degree day right about now. The fact that Zack has had a bad cold and a trip to the ER during this bout of frigid weather made everything worse.

Capital Highlights T he Texas Railroad Commission has suspended nearly two dozen permits that allow oil and gas companies to inject saltwater into the ground, which regulators say has contributed to increased earthquakes of greater magnitude in West Texas. The Austin American Statesman reported the 23 disposal wells hold hundreds of thousands of barrels of produced water, which is a toxic brine.

A ll those sayings about Texas weather come to mind as I watch the temps drop from the 20s to the 10s on this chilly Sunday night. I was at Brookshire’s on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Not because of the weather. Just the way it worked out. We’ve had a lot going on. More about that later.