After my daughter Becca produced two little girls, she announced her retirement from baby-making. This wasn’t taken well by her husband who hoped number three might be a son. After realizing how exhausting it was to raise two extremely active children, he decided this might be the right decision. When my son hit 40 without contributing to overpopulation, I assumed that was it for grandchildren. But Man plans and God laughs. Josh and Bev are now thrilled with a newborn baby girl. I haven’t seen her yet because Zack had his knee replaced. I was unable to influence the timing of that event. I don’t think he expected to be as incapacitated as he was at first, even though he was/ is far ahead of the curve. Caregiving in Texas has been ongoing for the first weeks of my new granddaughter’s life in Utah. I hope to see her very soon--- whenever Zack can fend for himself and drive himself around.

So now that the turkey has been eaten and the holiday decorations are being pulled out of storage, I thought I would write about a popular plant of the holiday season. Poinsettias are a prominent plant of the season; everyone is familiar with the vibrant red colors. But do you know where the poinsettia plant originated from? I didn’t; apparently they are native to Mexico and were first brought into the U.S. in the 1820s by a South Carolina botanist and our first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico. Or did you know that each year there are over 70 million plants that are sold nationwide? This makes the poinsettia the number one flowering potted plant sold in the USA.

The state’s Public Utility Commission last week lowered the maximum allowable wholesale price for electricity by almost half, from $9,000 per megawatt hour to $5,000. The move came after prices soared to the maximum during last February’s deadly freeze, causing financial havoc along with the widespread power outages.

We want to express our heartfelt thank you to the community of Clifton as well as Bosque County. Your prayers, cards, visits, flowers and food have been overwhelming. Neal loved his community and its people. He loved Jesus and was a walking testimony for Him. He will be greatly missed.

Sometimes I get so tired of eating sensibly. Today all I really wanted was dairy-free ice cream, Lindt chocolate and homemade oatmeal cookies. Is this wrong? I’ve been pretty good for years, ever since shedding enough pounds to toss the blood pressure pills. That made me a true believer. While many complained of gaining the COVID 19--- pounds--- I gained five, still too much for my frame. I was pretty good about activity and eating habits during the lockdown months of COVID. Our habits didn’t change drastically like folks accustomed to eating out and socializing more over food. I stopped being so strict about my diet a couple of years ago, thought I could get away with some sweets now and then. And I did for a while. That’s what had gotten me into this fix in the first place.

Electronic giant Samsung announced last week that it will build a new semiconductor manufacturing facility in the Central Texas town of Taylor, about 40 miles northeast of Austin. The $17 billion investment will be the largest foreign direct investment in Texas to date and brings the company’s total investment in the state to $35 billion.

hope you’ll enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving! Most of us have much for which to be grateful every day. Some are approaching the holidays still reeling from the challenges of the past 19 months and wondering how we’ll cope in the future. So like my father always said, we’ll just do the best we can. I’m always busy prior to Thanksgiving. Years ago, it was the whole cooking, serving, cleaning up, family, friends, kids routine. Then I it became mostly ranch work as usual, just the two of us and a nice meal. I’m still helping Zack after his knee replacement this year and tackling certain chores we’d normally do together. But major, manly, outdoor projects are temporarily forbidden.

Last week, I finally vacated the very last storage unit we held in San Antonio and celebrated the “accomplishment” with great enthusiasm. You see, over the past 20+ years we spent a small fortune keeping up to three units simultaneously where we stubbornly guarded all kinds of things that we didn’t use and nobody else wanted.

The state’s power grid could still be at risk under extreme winter conditions, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, but should operate fine under normal conditions. The Seasonal Assessment of Resource Adequacy, issued Friday, said the grid can meet normal and even moderately challenging weather conditions but could break down if the state faces winter storms such as occurred last February.

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully, in a tactful, nonjudgmental kinda way, to describe my recent caregiving stint--- for an impatient, stubborn, headstrong man after knee replacement. It’s been challenging for us both. Trying for an entertaining summary of misadventures, it keeps morphing into a cautionary tale to make any sane person think twice about taking this gig--- and run screaming into the sunset.