When I obtain a new appliance or machine, I may stare at it a few weeks until I get up the nerve/courage--- and find the time--- to even open the box. It seems a whole new skill set’s required for each additional purchase. Especially when they don’t include clear--- or any---instructions that can be viewed without a microscope. Intuitive these days, I’m apparently not.

Rural Texans have a lot to say about the lack of broadband service in their communities. Since we covered the topic earlier this month, many readers have emailed to share their stories and pleas for help.

There’s plenty of work to keep us busy post-election--- as things still hang in the balance and tempers remain high. The country is, if anything, more divided than ever. I can’t remember this kind of hatred in my lifetime. I hoped the election would end the anxiety so many have felt for the last weeks, but that hasn’t happened. Deep down, I expected this. Some people are happy, and others not so much. Eventually we’ll deal with whatever comes and hope that proposed changes will improve our lives rather than the opposite.

During a recent morning visit to Clifton, and after my habitual cappuccino at Corner Drug Café, I went by the Lutheran Sunset Ministries campus to pay a visit to some of the people who work there and are responsible for the extraordinary care that LSM has been providing to seniors in the area for 65 years.

Texas topped 1 million COVID-19 cases as some counties reimposed restrictions that had been loosened after this summer’s spike. Particularly hard-hit El Paso extended its temporary shutdown of nonessential businesses, but the Texas Eighth Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Friday to block County Judge Ricardo Samaniego’s order.

The county commissioners held no discussion and no one made a motion to consider a tax waiver request from Gary McKibben, owner of Red Caboose Winery and Vineyards. McKibben spoke to the Bosque County Commissioners Court Monday, Nov. 2, 2020, requesting the court waive the $1,500 fee for a licensing permit to brew beer at his facility in Clifton.

Last spring, one of our comic strip characters lamented that when we changed the clocks from Daylight Savings, we entered The Twilight Zone. And here we still are in that strange place, despite “falling back” after Halloween. For those who hoped we’d entered some worm hole or temporary time warp from which we’d emerge unscathed---or had some bizarre dream from which we’d awaken---- we didn’t. Most are coping. Many are struggling. I keep optimistically insisting it can’t last forever. All things pass, both the good and the bad. I’m reading that Covic-19 may be with us for a while, an accepted part of life like seasonal flu, colds and other viruses. No one really knows. Humans want answers and solutions, but what we have is indefinite uncertainty. For now.

• November 11, 1890 - The Pathfinder’s Club, the oldest women’s literary club in Austin, was organized by a group of women in the Driskill Hotel parlor. • November 12, 1860- Cattleman Henry Black registered the Muleshoe brand in Fannin County, though he may have used it as early as 1856.

If broadband is a lifeline, then rural Texas is in danger of dying. In its first report to the Texas Legislature, the Governor’s Broadband Development Council called for the creation of a state broadband plan and a state broadband office.

I can’t believe it’s already November. This uncertain, horrible, crazy, upsetting year is drawing to a close. There are moments that divide time. Usually these are relatively quick events like marriages, births, deaths, graduations and so forth. But we’ve had a whole year that divided time. And I suspect it will be more than one year. Past generations must have felt the same about other pandemics, wars, and depressions. There can be extended events that divide time. 2020--- a whole year and beyond--- doesn’t own the patent on this. 2020 will definitely divide time.