Butch Lawson

A bit before sunup on a cold day in February 1964, I was opening up the co-op for the start of daily business. I didn't expect many boats that morning since most of the fishermen had taken up their traps for the winter.

I loudly slapped closed the cover on my laptop, startling my housemate working in the recliner next to me. Jerked out of whatever she was working on at the moment, she snapped, "What was THAT?"

Many of us have seen what happens when, without thinking about it, we jam a stick in the spokes of comprehension for some unprepared clerk.

There's a black mutt rolling around on the carpet, a bone from her collection under her back to provide the scratch that springtime requires for most critters.

I suppose updates are in order. Much has happened since last month and I know the interest in my world is sky-high, so I won't keep you wondering. How is my hand?

The television in our home (there is only one) is seldom on. Mostly I find the contraption annoying, starting with news broadcasts. We turn the TV on most evenings to hear what the weather guessers are hoping to get right.

I always thought the age of discovery to be a reference to ancient times, but for me it's all about current events. I don't mean public events, like what passes for news on TV broadcasts, but important discoveries right in my own home.

About every 20 minutes or so growing up, my mother would tell me, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all." It's not likely that her mother had to tell her that, so I think she heard other moms use that old nugget on their kids and jumped on the wagon.

It's chilly, 24 degrees with a 20-mph northwest breeze. For dramatic effect, I'd tell you what the "wind chill" factor is, but you and I don't need any more drama. Just figure it's 24 degrees and blowy.

As if I needed objective evidence for the alleged incompetence at the BMV bureaucracy, I visited there to renew my driver's license recently.