Commentary

Over the years we discovered a household can become  a collection of heirlooms. Families will discover that when the subject of “downsizing” comes up.
A few months ago the Betterhalf and looked around our home and carried the same thought as we passed from room to room and saw collectables, antiques and just simple memorabilia.
Catching our eyes and later our ears were three old clocks that had been passed to us from earlier generations. Three mantel clocks came from great grandparents and grandparents.
Those three clocks were not in working order. The fourth clock was a more recent grandfather clock that was given to us as by my mother as a memorial to her parents. It had only had two faults. It lost a few hours each week and the chimes didn’t function correctly.

An industry often maligned in the national narrative these days pauses to celebrate its history, its purpose and its relevance during National Newspaper Week.
The Aurora News-Register is among the thousands of newspapers nationwide competing for an audience that consumes its news and information far differently than it did just a few years ago. In fact, newsprint may not be the medium of choice for many Americans, though particularly at the local level there remains no reliable alternative for fact-based reporting.

I have had a dog in my life for as long as I can remember and as soon as I had an apartment that allowed pets I found a dachshund puppy that needed rescued and brought her home.
Now, Ruby is not the type of dog you dress up or even enjoys the company of other people or dogs. She is content to sun herself, eat and sleep and maybe chase the occasional rabbit.
I’m sure many people have known this type of old-souled dog, but I decided that it was time for little Ruby to expand her horizons and try something completely different -- weiner dog racing.
Lucky for me, not so lucky for Ruby, there was a race being held in Chapman on Sept. 21. I thought a small-town pup parade would be a great way to test the waters and I even brought our other mystery-mutt dog Bucky to support Ruby.

Every time we take a lengthy road trip it seems we face a headwind and naturally car mileage dips. If we head north we face a north wind and if we head south, it’s a wind blowing from the south.
These windy situations crossed our mind a week ago when we viewed a mass migration of monarch butterflies making what was termed a “pit stop” in Aurora. The thousands of monarchs are on their near 2,000 mile migration trip to winter headquarters in Mexico.
As one group of monarchs took a break from flying into a strong south wind we marveled at the perseverance and wing muscle strength it must take to reach their travel goal.
That’s when we were reminded of our own semi-annual 800 mile road trips when we drove to Austin, Texas while battling a south wind and watching our car’s gauge rapidly move downward toward empty. We would arrive tired from the one-day of driving; a sore back; and less “miles per gallon.”

Dear Editor:
Enough is enough. Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 2) an Aurora School bus slid off 12 Road between F and G Roads. My daughter was on that bus along with 20 or so other children. If there had been injuries there is no way an ambulance could have got closer than a quarter mile to the bus.
Every road in the county has issues. I know they will blame the rain for Wednesday’s problems. I live a mile and a half from where the bus got stuck and I had less than a half inch of rain.

As we get older we find pleasure in hanging on to old memories. A friend relayed some info that brought a smile as well as points of recall of many of my own memories. He stated a youngster triggered these memories when he was asked, “What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?”
The oldster replied there was no fast food when he was growing up . . . all food was slow.
“Seriously” the youngster said, “Where did you eat.” The gentleman explained, “Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I liked it.”
The gentleman then reported by this time the kid was laughing so hard he wasn’t told about the need to have permission to leave the table.

Budget season on the local level was anything but normal this year with a combination of declining property valuations, a shift in ambulance services from county to city, and a body blow from Mother Nature making it harder than ever for residents to know what their tax bills will look like.
Heavy rains have been brutal in 2019, damaging roads and bridges beyond belief. Hamilton County, mercifully, has not been hit nearly as hard as fellow Nebraskans to the west and north, but nonetheless a drive through the county, especially as harvest season begins, leaves no doubt that drastic measures were in order.

There are more than  470,000 words in the English language. The working journalist is accredited with the use of the largest number, something less than 20,000. Clergymen, lawyers and doctors use an average of about 10,000 words.
 The science and professions have the largest number that the average layman never hears of. For instance, medical men and women must know the names nearly 450 muscles, almost 200 veins, more than 700 arteries, 500-plus pigments, 300-plus poisons, 150-plus tumors, and thousands of tests, diseases and bacteria.
Yet, with all these words, think of all the people who still have trouble expressing themselves. Then think of all of us who constantly wonder what they are all talking about!
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It’s has been said, “Older people shouldn’t eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get.”
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Proposed rule changes involving the amount of and methods with which nitrogen is applied to area farms stirred emotional debate in recent weeks, and rightly so.
There is perhaps no one single issue that touches the lives, livelihoods and health of local citizens as much as soil and water quality. Thus it came as no surprise that a Upper Big Blue Natural Resource District proposal to require the use of inhibitors as a means of reducing the loss of nitrogen in soil touched a nerve.
A public hearing in August and later NRD board meeting both drew hundreds of area farmers, sending a loud, united voice of opposition to the proposed Rule 5 changes. Producers were civil, yet clearly outraged at what many called a drastic plan to address a complex problem which was years in the making.

We need a few laughs in this old world and the newspaper headlines, while seemingly dominated with bad news, can also trigger a few smiles. Some of the following have been actual newspaper headlines:
“Dead Man Found in City Cemetery . . . Five Foot Snake Found in Toilet, Woman Relieved . . . Female Sanitation Workers Dump on Trash-Talking Boss . . . Fraud Charges Pinned on Pro Wrestler . . . Procrastinator’s Club Delays Annual Meeting.”
And finally here’s one that we’re sure the public has been waiting for this information: “Notre Dame Cathedral Workers Wear Throwaway Underwear.”
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The Betterhalf hasn’t asked me to sort my laundry, but she has taken other methods to control my wardrobe. Some of my favorite shirts and a few pair of jeans never returned to my closet after being sent to the laundry room. When she was questioned, I was told, “You are not wearing those old frayed shirts or faded jeans with holes in the knees anymore!”