YES, I AM STILL HERE peeking out my window on Main Street, and I will finally end stubborn resistance and tell you about my pre-Christmas disaster. I would prefer to avoid telling my side of the story at all but I’m sure it was a coffee shop/beauty shop topic for several days.
It happened in front of the year’s biggest crowd in the second-floor Howard County courtroom. I resisted telling this because it was such a humiliating experience.
It happened in front of a big crowd because the widow of the late Bobby Don Turner (a great man who was the son of a great man) was to be presented a plaque in recognition of his long service to the citizens of Howard County by his years on the quorum court and on the hospital board.
Many members of his family were there. The event SHOULD have been the most talked-about event of December’s meeting of the court, but it wasn’t.
I usually cover meetings of the court for this newspaper. As I have gotten older, my senses of sight and hearing have lessened, therefore I sit in the judge’s seat overlooking the long table around which the JPs sit. I can see and hear better.
On that dreadful Monday I was uncomfortable in the judge’s chair. I tried to scoot the chair back just a bit, and at the same time I tried to scoot my fanny forward just a bit.
Two significant forces going in opposite directions.
BOOM!
The chair did move backward, my fanny did move forward. Once the chair was no longer under my fanny, the fanny plunged to the floor.
That was followed by the judge’s chair overturning and landing atop my carcass. There was a great deal of clatter at a time when the courtroom should have been very quiet due to the solemn presentation which had just taken place.
I thought I popped right up following the fall, but I was actually down long enough so that both the county judge and the sheriff felt the need to run to my rescue.
They helped me up and asked if I was alright. Thank you, gents.
I was too humiliated to talk until members of the court saw I was unhurt and began laughing. “It was a trick chair,” I sputtered lamely, ducking behind a convenient lie in order to explain what happened.
I can only hope that this will also happen to one of our two circuit judges when they are presiding from that same perch. Maybe someone will tell me about it. Ha ha. Maybe even record it for Facebook.
That will take some heat off me in the coffee shop.
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THE NIGHT SKY. Since the moon makes a complete rotation of the Earth every 29.5 days, there will be 12 full moons in 2024. There was one less in 2023.
In addition, there will be two partial eclipses of the moon.
Lunar eclipses almost always happen at night.
Our full moons will be: Jan. 25; Feb. 24.; Mar. 25; Apr. 23; May 23; June 21; July 21; Aug. 19, Sept. 18; Oct. 17; Nov. 15; and Dec. 15.
The partial eclipses will be Mar. 24 and Sept. 17.
There is something hypnotizing when the great orange full moon rises in the east.
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PLEASE JOIN ME in learning the Washington Huskies fight song. I know that it is the kiss of death for me to root for a team. There should be some reward for both Washington and Michigan for eliminating Texas and Alabama, respectively, in the college football championship playoffs.
For me, the most impressive win of all bowl games has been Missouri’s win over Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl.
Missouri’s resurgence gives me hope for the Razorbacks. And Maryland, too. Who woulda thought they’d hammer Auburn!!
I really really hate that so many very important team stars “opted out” of the bowl games, and then showed up wearing their team jersey on the sidelines during the game.
The NCAA needs to do something about the NIL (Name Image and Likeness) money fiasco and the Transport Portal.
This should be this column’s last college football post until next September when the #1 Fair Weather Razorback Football Fan comes out of his cave to whine about yet another loss to a cupcake.
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THINGS I LEARNED by opening an email: “Hard to believe I once had a phone attached to a wall, and when it rang, I picked it up without knowing who was calling.”
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WORD GAMES. That ill-fated couple: Sampson & Delilah. She wanted him to get a haircut.
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HE SAID: “Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.” Dalai Lama, religious leader
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SHE SAID: “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.” Rosa Parks, bus passenger and activist
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SWEET DREAMS, Baby
