Opinion

A Washington Post writer of tales, decided t' post an tale about how we shouldn't romanticize pirates. Th' poor dear be ridden wit' pirate poison.  Th' Super B game (we aren't allowed t' use th' proper name because of its trademark), apparently had a crew called th' Buccaneers. 'n that brought out all th' fun lovin' crazy scallywags, includin' Wench Jamie L.

Editor:This is our second day of being snowed in.  At approximately 1:00 PM today a Benton County Secondary Road Maintainer went by our East-West road; he then preceded South opening up the roadway to Highway 218, our normal pathway to Vinton.  We are grateful for his service to our community.  We now have to open up our driveway to our frontage road, but I am not as capable as I once was, so we wait for our Tenant Farmer, friend and good neighbor to arrive with his giant John Deere Tractor and homemade blade to scrape our driveway.

A few days ago I prepared to begin an article. The story began with an email that took roughly 3 hours to take care of. It wasn't a problem on the end of the sender, it was restraints on my website. First I put all of the information onto the website, and then I walked away and forgot to save it. I put the information on a second time and started to add the corresponding pictures, and then saved it that time.

Thank you to all of the men out there that drove around in their pickups and tractors complete with blades on the front of them this weekend. Thanks especially to every guy out there that took a ribbing from the women in their lives about their "toys." Thank you to the guys in the small tractors, the four wheelers, the ATV's. When we get as much heavy snow as we did this weekend, every woman that has to shovel is looking out the window in hopes of one of those knights in shining armor to roll up and plow the driveway, or hoping that someone with a snowblower will have pity on them and stop by.

It's hard to put into words the grief for someone that you knew, but wish that you had known better. I knew Nathan Hesson first through his job at Vinton Unlimited. It was clear that he loved his community not only in serving in this position but then later on the City Council. Later I observed him and his excitement for his kids as they prepared to take their first airplane ride at the airport.

I know I'm not alone in being glad that 2020 was over and looked forward to 2021. Now, I'm not sure that 2021 is going to go off better than in 2020, maybe worse.Locally, it has not been a good year. The first week has had more bad news than most years contain. It has made me appreciate our local law enforcement, our first responders, EMT's, fire department, our dispatchers and anyone else I may have not mentioned.

We all hoped that 2021 would be a new page, a new beginning and that things would be great, can I get an Amen?Or in other words, a "So be it."This week Congress opened shop again, it's okay to groan, I am. I tend to think that if shutting down the government just kept all of our elected officials at home, that would be best. Case in point. Emanuel Cleaver, a United Methodist Pastor in Kansas City, Missouri opened Congress with a prayer that ended with, 'We ask it in the name of the monotheistic God, Brahma, and "god" known by many names by many different faiths.

It always seemed funny to me when news organizations report that we’ve had snow in Iowa. Or when they’re out driving and telling us how bad the roads are. It reminds me of the reporters standing in a hurricane telling us that it's windy.The news might be the workers who stay overnight at their job so that they will be there in the morning to take care of our elderly.

Christmas is a time that you expect to see twinkling lights and Christmas displays in the yards around town. When pulling into town, or any town for that matter,  the street lights are decorated with wreaths or garland or in Vinton snowflakes.When you turn on the radio you hear Christmas music from every genre of music country, gospel, and rock.

According to a recent study, cheese is good for you. Pair it with some red wine and you are improving your cognitive skills. "Cognitive skills are the skills your brain uses to think, read, learn, remember, reason, and pay attention. They take incoming information and move it into the bank of knowledge you use every day at school, at work, and in life.