Opinion

Editor's Note: We welcome Letters to the Editor of local and general interest to our readers. Letters should be typed and include the writer’s first and last name, home address and phone number for verification. No anonymous letters will be printed. Letters may be edited...

What do you know about electricity? Surely you know not to hold both the common and ground wires while dealing with gremlins in your house or office. I found out that electricity, even if you can’t see it, can really give you a ride...

I’m a brat. There, I said it. I think my mother was the last person who said it to me many years ago and she wasn’t wrong. I have lived and traveled freely all my life. I have cruised back and forth at will...

Today is a day when my dad would greet everyone he met with the most common phrase in the farmers lexicon. “Hot enough for you?” Actually, he didn’t say that very often. When you wake up over in the San Joaquin Valley, summer is...

During your wedding vows, in less than good health and in slightly better health and all that jazz, you are so caught up in the romanticism of the prospect of — hopefully — being together forever, you don’t really think about the sickness part...

Do you have a “smart phone?” I’m not sure what makes a smart phone or a dumb phone, but I’m pretty sure I got the dumb one. I mean, I see folks walking around all day looking at their phones, and if the phones...

Do you have proper emergency preparation in place? The recent wildfires should be a reminder to everyone to have emergency plans ready. The idea is to be prepared, whether the threat is a wildfire, earthquake, flood, long-term power outage or some other widespread problem. A...

“You’ve been 2020-ed.” It’s a thing, likely to find its place in the modern vernacular, after a year such as this. Fresh on the heels of the ongoing coronavirus plague, folks not being able to return to work, money tight and the future unclear;...

Put on your thinking cap and try to remember what you were doing four months ago. Were you getting ready to go out to dinner? How about seeing that movie you wanted the whole family to see? Meeting with a Bible study group? Well,...

Getting an oddball pet can be a great motivator, especially when it provides food for you as well as bug control and an endless supply of fertilizer for the garden. I never thought I’d be one to raise a flock of fowl ever again in...