Columns & Editorials

B Dear Aunt B, How do I reach out to people that I have lost contact with? There have been people in my past that I have lost touch with, and I miss them. Do you have any good advice?

I am not a smart person. I can’t seem to grasp technology. I don’t understand Wi-Fi at all, leading me into all sorts of predicaments where I must edit my columns on my phone where autocorrect often changes words into other words, like 2 weeks ago. Did you catch that? Tint became tent. I blame it on self-diagnosed ADHD. I am easily distracted, especially by cats. I’m horrible at math. I’ve been told that my orating skills are lacking sorely. My stories are long and laborious, twisting into pretzel-like dead end journeys that never seem to find the cheese in the maze. But, if you need someone who files away incredibly detailed info snippets into their brain that leads to random shout outs of the most random facts, spontaneously, I’m your girl. I make a heck of a Trivial Pursuit partner. I’m also decent at music trivia, especially if we’re concentrating on 70s-80s tunes. I often yell at my husband, “Quick! Your life is at stake! Your survival depends on your ability to tell me who sings this song. Go!” My husband is very smart. He understands boring things like debt-to-income ratios and the dollar and other nonsense that makes me yawn. He seriously doubts the zombie apocalypse will ever occur, or that music trivia will save the day in the event it does happen. Also, he just doesn’t know who sang the song. But, we do tend to balance each other well. I hope so, at least. By the time you read this column, we will have already returned from a much-needed vacation to celebrate our 20th anniversary. You may think we headed straight to an all-inclusive resort in a tropical locale. Nope. Perhaps we are Flora-Bama aficionados, beaching it down south for a week? Wrong. Surely we are international travelers with sensible walking shoes, snapping our digital lives away in Italy or Spain? No again. We leave in 48 hours, headed once again, to Idaho.

The dog days of summer have certainly arrived, and with the soaring temperatures Texas State Parks is sharing seven tips to help Texans enjoy time outdoors safely. Last year, 47 state parks reported 141 heatrelated illnesses in humans and pets. Since January 1, 77 heat-related incidents have already been reported, compared to 64 reported by this time last year.

“I would pray that I bless all the people in the world and all the animals, my cat, Rusty, especially,” says Noah, age 6. Noah would also ask God to bless his house and other people’s houses and “to make the parks really fun.”

Can You Build an Estate Plan Like a House?

The power of a good story never gets old. When Forney Education Foundation Board members have the opportunity to interact with new people about FEF and its mission, the results are nearly always the same. There is an almost euphoric feeling when the listener spontaneously donates to the Forney Education Foundation after just a short story from a Board member.

MiMi and Grandpa had a date to take Grandkids, Ella and Luke, to see a movie on an afternoon when, for a change, they were all four free and available for leisure and fun! The choice was the Disney and Pixar Studio movie that has just hit the local screens in a big way, and it was computer animation at its finest…..ELEMENTAL. (PG rated for some peril, a little sort of bad language, and some maybe questionable thematic elements….. An hour and 43 minutes running time.)

I am an aspiring podcaster. Do I have a studio? No. Equipment? Again, no. Training? Most decidedly, I do not. Talent? Absolutely none. I bet you’re wondering what makes me think I could be successful in the podcast world. Trust me, I wonder, too. I can talk for hours on end. I may lose my train of thought every 5 minutes and be ever shamed for interrupting to keep my feeble brain on track, but lawd knows I can talk. My mother used to complain about me with an adage. “Dina can talk to a brick wall.” I took it as a compliment, though I am not sure it was completely meant as one. That’s the thing about only child status. We become adept at speaking to ourselves, our imaginary audience, and the occasional brick wall. When I was 8, I wrote a play about, and meant to serve as a launch to stardom for, my parents, their homestead, and all my feral cats. Think of Bonanza but for felines. Mom & Dad were not interested in any public performances. I still think of it as their loss. But, back to the topic of the podcast, a phenomenon that has taken the digital media by storm this past decade. While there are programs for every interest imaginable, the true crime genre resonates the deepest with me. I was hooked by the first episode of Serial. I am still following the trials and tribulations of Adnan Syed as my heart breaks continuously for the family of Hae Min Lee. Still, Mark Twain once said, “Write what you know.” While he never said, “Podcast what you know,” I feel like he would have, had podcasts been a thing in the late 1800s. Fortunately, I don’t know murder. I pray that I never do. There is this one story, however, that gnaws at the pit of my stomach occasionally. It’s a watercolor story from the brain of a child who was prone to imagining some saturated tales. Equal parts overheard adult conversation and fill in the blank innuendo from a kiddo from the country without anything better to do, I’d like to spin a yarn for you today. But, it's a yarn that tangles up a bit close to home. So, I’m changing the names, you know, to protect the innocent. It does not involve murder at all, unless, of course, it does.

Dear Aunt B, I am really tired of feeling bad. What are some things that I can do to feel better and improve my health?

“Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside,” quipped Mark Twain.

ETFs Can Spell

Ask Aunt B

“God created dads so they could wrestle with their daughters or their sons or wife,” says Kaitlin, 8.