Columns/Opinions

By Jo Price

How about this weather?

Shirt sleeve weather for Christmas, a bit windy, but very warm and will be Monday and then it will be a bit cooler, not too cold and maybe some rain. Who knows? We will just take whatever comes along.

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas with their families and friends. Some are not going to have their Christmas until this next week.

There has been a loss in the community of two men: first, Jimmy Light, and then, Tommie Tinney. Both deaths were sudden and unexpected as both men had not been ill. It was really a shock to everyone who knew them. Tommie will be buried at High Valley on Monday, December 26, and Jimmy will be cremated with a memorial service planned for the 28th at Blaylock Funeral Home. Both men will be greatly missed by their families and friends. Keep the families in your prayers.

By Jo Price 

The cold front that came in Saturday afternoon late was just that cold and windy, but if you thought that was bad, Sunday really made you know it was cold. Down in the 20’s with a wind that sure made it seem colder than that. Haven’t heard of anyone around the Bend having frozen pipes, but Earl Sutton reported that his fish pond and some other things outside was just one big ice cycle. Nothing else, no inside pipes were frozen and he still had plenty of water.

Malissa Lemons reported that her daughter Lesa Preece was going to under go surgery on one foot to remove some sort of growth one day this next week and son Bruce Lemons was to under go a hernia operation next week also. Danny was the only one not going to have surgery as far as she knows. She requested prayers for both of her children and their family.

by Sue Ransom 

I hope you have a blessed Christmas and that God blesses you in many ways. Thank you for being so special. I meant to send a picture of the kids for the Heifer International, but we have just moved into our new school and it was too hectic. Costa Rica will be too difficult to send out the column, so here it is.

The Richland Springs Report Dec. 21, 2016

By Cathy Ledbetter

I get up nearly every morning with a very foggy head. I stagger around my kitchen trying to remember the procedure for making a pot of coffee, then I sit and wait for the coffee to be ready. This fifteen to thirty minutes after I first wake up is the most unproductive part of every day. Not only am I not physically productive (apart from making coffee), my brain is not producing much, either. I would not trust me to make any important decisions or operate machinery for at least a half hour after awakening. Being slow to awaken is apparently a family trait that I inherited from my father and my children inherited from me. My husband is the lone riser and shiner in our family and he drives the rest of us crazy with it.

By Sue Ransom

I wish I could report the results of the big state game, but it will have to wait until next week. For those of you riding the tour bus, it will leave at 10:00 a.m. and return around 10:00 p.m. I thought the cost was really reasonable. When I left school on Friday there were less than 20 seats left and the bus holds 55. State fever is running rampant. The other thing that is running rampant is the disgust at the lack of coverage from our local stations. Brownwood radio is strangely silent. Waco news is absolutely silent. I did find our scores on their report page, but they never mentioned that we were going for a record breaking 8th championship. We even have an ex-graduate at the station, but that apparently rates a big fat zero.

By Sue Ransom

I’m going to repeat myself. Where in the world has this year gone? I feel as if I am one step behind and I will miss the train, plane, boat or whatever.

I constantly feel as if I have missed a day of teaching or days of cleaning. That in and of itself is bad, but I am so far gone as to not even think I can catch up with my work. I wonder if I will catch up before the end of the year.

By Jo Price

An inch of rain was recorded this past week and, needless to say, everything is wet, which is good. It did put a slow down on gathering pecans as some of the pecan bottoms were just too wet. More rain was in the offering Monday, but as this article was being written, nothing was falling, but very overcast and cold. Colder weather is forecast for the latter part of this week, after all it is the time of year for that kind of weather.

Everyone should be prepared for a cold front and have all their outside pipes and faucets protected, just in case of a sudden freeze. It's better to be prepared than wake up and have no water because of frozen pipes.

By Kevin Slimp´s

The special edition of “Renderings with Raymond” took the Valley by surprise Monday morning. Most folks expected fireworks on the first show following Juliet Stoughton’s huge announcement on Friday, but even his most loyal followers didn’t expect their champion to begin three hours earlier than usual.

Following a rousing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, recorded in 1983 by Tangi Blevins and the Heavenly Hosts, Raymond introduced Lutheran pastor Brother Jacob, who reluctantly offered a prayer to begin the show. Inviting Brother Jacob was a tactical maneuver meant to sway any “fence sitting” Lutheran run-off voters to move into the Cooper camp before the Thursday vote.

By Cathy Ledbetter

A Cautionary Tale

As the song says, the holiday season can be “the most wonderful time of the year.” Now it seems to start with Halloween, continues through Thanksgiving, Christmas, and then drops off sharply the day after New Year’s Day. For about two months, we are out shopping and spending money at a far higher rate than the rest of the year. These days we are also busy giving our credit card numbers to websites and running the mail and package delivery services ragged bringing us all of those bargains and gifts. We are out traveling to relatives’ homes and going to parties. All of this unusual activity can end up making the holiday season the most awful time of the year.

Well-Timed Rains Have Made for a Bumper Crop of Native Vegetation