Columns/Opinions

Friday nights are officially filled with stadium lights again and I, for one, couldn’t be happier. My daughter is marching in the band this year and I had forgotten how electric the energy of those Friday nights could be.

As she took the field for the first time, my dad leaned over to me and said, “You wanna be out there don’t ya?” I answered honestly and the answer was no, but it doesn’t make me any less proud that my kid is getting to experience it.

My son, too, has joined the ranks of the sports world by playing Upward football. This is really the first time either of them has been involved in team sports. I attempted to let my daughter play soccer when she was 5, but if you’ve ever been to a game where 5-year-olds play anything, you’ll understand why I was less than thrilled. You pay an exorbitant amount for those leagues and all you get back is the thrill of watching your kid run the wrong way and play in the dirt.

  Musings of a history buff

I would like to introduce myself. My name is Ellis Lee Knox. I moved back to Texas to live on my wife’s land on Lake Bob Sandlin in December of 2006 from the Washington D.C. area.

There, I was a direct contractor to The Central Intelligence Agency, really, no fooling! I worked for CIA University, in the Sherman Kent School for Intelligence Analysis.

 At the Kent School, new analysts were trained to write the Presidential Daily Briefing for the President of these United States. It’s the most important document the CIA produces.  I was the technology manager of the school’s several classrooms, photographer, videographer and general gofer.

While living in northern Virginia surrounded by the history of the United States, I was literally in history buff heaven.  My interest in the War of Northern Aggression from 1861 to 1865 was especially heightened and fed.

Have you ever felt like how you were raised doesn't seem to work on raising your own children? Or maybe what works on one child, doesn't work at all on another child of yours?

There are undeniable and unchanging truths to parenting.

-Love your child

-Protect your child

-Teach your child right from wrong

-Discipline your child

What's your favorite thing about the Lone Star State? What's the one thing that makes you want to be here instead of anywhere else in the world? Is it because you've always been here and just can't imagine pulling up stakes and moving?

Is it because there's too many memories? Or is it because of what there's not...ice and snow, rude folks and ahem...Yankees?

For me, it's a little bit of all of this and much more. I love that most everything you could want in a vacation or home base is here – somewhere. You want a beach? Done. Mountains? Done. Canyons? Done. Rivers, trees, fields, sand dunes? Done times four.

My friend and fellow co-worker Brittany is on her way to Austin as I type and I'm thinking of how much fun she's going to have this weekend.

I have writer’s block. As I sit here staring at a blank computer screen it is Friday afternoon and my column is due at 4 p.m. Thankfully, I also have a new book at my disposal that is supposed to help. On the front of this week’s paper I wrote a story about Sandra McCurry and her new book, “Awakening your Muse.”

As I sit here and lament the joy that is writer’s block, I have decided to put her work to the test. I flipped to a random page – 37. There’s a photo of one of Ms. McCurry’s more eclectic drawings – a swirly-twirly jumble of purple, blue and green shapes that she titled “World of Music.” When I was conducting our interview, she showed me this exact photo and asked, “Doesn’t it just look like music?”

If you said that true love comes easy, it’s never having to say I’m sorry, or is an open door, I’d agree with you... But then we’d both be wrong. Fairy tales, Hollywood and love songs have distorted reality and sold us these high, humanly-impossible standards. Most of us buy it.

I was married at 19. Almost 12 years later I can admit that I’m not a perfect wife, Shaun is not a perfect husband, we both make mistakes, we both hold grudges, one of us has an anger problem… but I won’t name his name. And the other has a smart mouth. We’ve gone through some rough times. We have a beautiful family, live in a great community, have amazing families, support out of the wazoo, but I can promise you that the ONLY reason we have pulled through is because of God.

But when trying to figure out if it’s the right person to fall in love with, you may want to ask these important questions:

-Have you ever said no to a pizza?

-How do you feel about cats?

We are in the dog days of summer. The expression dog days refers to the hot, sultry days of summer experienced in the months of July and August. Come to the Library and cool off with a good book. We have Story Time every Thursday at 4. We have volunteers who come every week to read to the children and then they do a craft afterwards. We are also honoring “Food for Fines” thru August. Bring new, non-perishable food items for credit towards library fines. Receive $.50 credit for each item brought. This helps our patrons and our food pantries out this summer.

I’ve only experienced the first 10 years of raising boys, but I’ve already started putting together a handy guidebook. Let’s look at our first few points.

1)      Boys are born packing heat. They’re trigger happy and will get you every time. You might as well be sounding the trumpets of war every time you take off a diaper. So learn to wipe ‘em up and re-diaper in two seconds flat because as soon as you let your guard down, as that cute little face draws you in for a quick kiss, pew pew (gun sound effects), right in the mouth. However, when they come of potty training age, it is fun to stand at attention and nobly proclaim, “I pray your draw is swift and your aim is true.”

I laugh at the most inappropriate times. I cry when I’m happy. When God was giving me emotions, he got me backwards.

Last week, I took my first ambulance ride. Got a stomach bug and got dehydrated. Apparently in 150 degree heat you don’t even have to go outside to get dehydrated. When they got me on the stretcher and wheeled me to the ambulance, I giggled.

Should’ve been terrified. Should’ve been crying, but no. It was like a really small and inefficient roller coaster. I was on a little cart with no control over its movements – it went up and down and my stomach butterflied…it counts.

I can’t seem to be serious when it matters. I make jokes at funerals. I crack wise with folks in the hospital. I cry at weddings. Babies send me over the edge. The good thing about all this is I constantly entertain myself.

  Have you ever heard the expression “you’re going to pay for your raising?” It’s usually in a southern accent, accompanied with a snarky tone, followed by a chuckle and coming out of your mother’s mouth. Normally AFTER you start to have kids of your own.

No one seems tells you that BEFORE you bear children. But as soon as yours start getting into trouble, you get the warning of the century. Thanks for nothing.

So if I am paying for my raising, I’m getting a pretty sweet deal. As a child I had a desire to please, I hated getting into trouble, therefore thoroughly respected authority, had a relevantly pleasant attitude – but my mom may beg to differ. I’m just going to go ahead and out her right now, though…she’s got a vivid imagination and a lying problem.