No thanks! I’ve had enough coffee

Let’s engage in some meaningless small talk. I’ll start by saying something totally cliché and you respond appropriately. Of course, I’m not going to listen to a word you say. Instead, I’ll be thinking of something totally different and will change the subject when you’re finished.

Remembering the Hunt County haunted house

“Bells started ringin’ and chains rattled loud, I knew I’d moved in a haunted house.” — ‘Haunted House’ song lyrics, recorded by Jumping Gene Simmons 1964. ----- The old house was charming, even in stages of ruin. An elegant two-story with dormers.

Surviving without an ounce of imitation brainpower

This story was in no way written with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI). If it had been, it probably would have been so much better.

Spontaneously experiencing selective memory loss

My memory isn’t faulty; it just goes on vacation more often than I do.” — I would tell you who said that. But I forget. Check back with me later. “Tell us all about it,” was a friend’s general greeting as I walked in at church Sunday morning.

Furious Houston canes his accuser

“Was the late secretary of war removed in consequence of his attempt fraudulently to give to Gov. Houston the contract for the Indian rations?” an Ohio congressman asked on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Mar. 31, 1832.

Photo shoot with Jesus

The items I had with me were a camera, where I snapped family photos and candid shots of the day as inmates met with their families and enjoyed hours with each other, which included pizza, games, handholding, eye contact, sitting at a table together, and continuous memory-making moments.

World traveler brought ‘em back alive

Frank Buck, the celebrated adventurer who brought exotic wildlife “back alive,” took his last breath not in a faraway jungle but in a Houston hospital bed on Mar. 25, 1950.

Let it grow, let it grow

Lawn mowers are such unnecessary things. Sure, they can make a front yard look spiffy — for a while. But the grass grows back, we spend even more time and money on keeping the yard “neighborhood friendly,” and I think goats would be better.

Let me tell you all about it

Dear My Journal. I know at the beginning of the year I promised I would write to you more than I did last year, but as you can tell, I’ve been a bit lax. You know how it is.

The last days of Sam Houston

Speaking in public for the last time on Mar. 18, 1863, Sam Houston told the citizens of the town that bore his name, “The welfare and glory of Texas will be the uppermost thought while the spark of life remains in this breast.