As I was staring out the window a little bit ago, I noticed several large, ghost-like shapes gliding across the water and materializing into view through the fog. It was a flock of American white pelicans, and the sight made me catch my breath. I heard myself saying, “Whoa!” out loud, even though I was alone in the house. At that moment, I felt like the luckiest person in the world to have been allowed this privilege.

Read More >    

How in the world do the magazine writers have time, given NCAA and UIL limits on spring practice, to evaluate each team’s strengths and weaknesses to come up with preseason rankings? The short answer is that they don’t. Instead, they heavily base their rankings on the teams’ prior performance.

Similarly, loan officers look at a borrower’s historical income record by analyzing tax returns.

Read More >    

Each year, hundreds of FFA and 4-H kids parade their chickens, turkeys, rabbits, lambs, goats, hogs, steers and heifers before knowledgeable judges in their respective categories. It’s the day of reckoning, so to speak, for all those early morning feedings (usually in the dark and often in the cold before school); for all the poop-scooping and cleaning of stalls, pens and cages; for all the time spent gentling animals that would just as soon stay on the wild side; for all the brushing, bathing, shearing, trimming and grooming of creatures firmly resolved to getting filthy; for all the checking for pests and diseases and medicating when necessary; for all the exercising, handling, petting and loving — in short, for all the work involved in raising a baby critter to a full-fledged show animal. 

Read More >