Opinion

Had a wonderful conversation with good friend Pat Black the other day.  Of course, we hark back to “the good old days” as well as all the tidbits that get in the news.
We were discussing the discussions school boards and educators are having, about what they can do about students and the overuse of cell phones in the classroom.
Both of us agreed that a simple solution is to ban them in the school room. Why do teenagers need them in the classroom setting?  Any message from home, any excuse for a doctor/dental appointment, must come from the main office first; that is where permission is given, not from a parent on a cell phone.

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock
Technology is a wonderful thing, until it isn’t.  I missed last month’s column because my trusty old laptop decided it wasn’t going to stay on task. But it has been replaced and here we are on the first day of August.
Shell Valley Women’s Coffee is being held today (Thursday, Aug. 1) at the home of Mary Whaley, 3749 Lane 32-1/2. Watch for green kid warning figures with orange flags marking the property entrance. The coffee begins at 9:30 a.m. and ends about 11 a.m. If you would like to, bring a small treat to share. Hope you can make it so we can all catch up on our summer happenings.

We hate to call out a specific business, let alone one as important to our community as the railroad, but we have a problem in our little town and it’s just not getting addressed.
We are referring to the condition of what many locals call “Railroad Avenue” but on the Big Horn County website and our town maps is technically known as Seventh Street.
This is, of course, one of our most heavily travelled roads, especially between August and May when classes are in session and activities are taking place on the middle and high school campuses.
For it to be in the condition it’s in, with potholes from one end of it to the other, is distressing.  They aren’t little potholes, either.  Some are big. You can imagine your vehicle’s tires and suspension system wailing in agony every time you run over one.  If your tires could speak, they’d no doubt say, “Please choose alternative route.”

Since school has been out and Joni has been doing the lawn mowing chores at our house, I have had Hagen as my volunteer grocery shopper.  He turned 16 the last of May so is “legal” and he takes me along because I need to get out, and besides, he gets a free lunch when we’re done.  I sit in the car and “people watch” while he takes my list and my check and heads inside. He does a masterful job.  Always buys a couple of things extra he thinks I’ll like — one week it was a small can of toasted almonds; another, a new cracker he thought I’d like, and another, microwave popcorn because he knew I was out. Always a surprise for me. He would come home, bring the groceries in, put them all away for me and left me a clean cabinet. Great job.
Last week, it was Boo who did the honors. She had just gotten her learner’s permit, so could be my chauffeur (which I think was the main drawing card) and away we went.