Lifestyle

Move to Division I Going Nicely

IF SO, What Did You Do For FUN/LEISURE ACTIVITIES?

B Dear Aunt B, I still have not started any exercise routine. I had planned to start it on January 1st. Any ideas on how to get me motivated?

I love coffee. In an age where nothing is sacred in this world and everything is bad for you (like, seriously, everything) I beg of you – leave my coffee alone. I love walking into Latham Bakery with my official Latham Bakery insulated cup and having them fill it up to the brim. If you haven’t had their Maple Pecan coffee, who even are you? I can hear Melinda’s voice saying, “Room for cream?” The correct answer is always yes. I adore those original tile floors and the glass fronts on the bakery cabinets and the wooden tabletops. Mostly, I love the coffee. I’m no coffee snob, either. Sure, the top 5 coffee reviewers of 2023 all rank Death Wish as the best coffee on the market, with its double down on caffeine, its organic and fair-trade nature, and those almost burned chocolate tones lurking in the aftertaste. But I can drink any coffee. Give me the Starbies Cinnamon Dolce any day. I’ll drink that Black Rifle coffee my veteran son supports. Heck, I am 100% on board with the Great Value Cinnamon Vanilla blend Walmart sells. I will drink it black. I will drink it with a splash of organic whole milk, preferably raw. I will drink it with a little heavy cream drizzle. I will drink it from a drip, as a pour over, and even from, egad, a pod. I will drink it with a fox in socks on a box, Sam I Am. So, color me gob smacked when my husband and I almost broke into fisticuffs over, of all things, coffee creamer options.

B Dear Aunt B Readers, So let’s address the second half of Ready for More’s question. “Do we really become the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with?” Ready for More’s concern was that they were the top 3 (me, myself and I), so they felt they definitely needed to break out of that rut. Let’s talk about the fact that the most of their time was spent alone, or at least that is how I took their comment.

By the age of 3, I spoke fluent Spanish. Fluent, that is, in a 3-year old’s brain who sits around listening to her parent’s best friends, the Castillos, speak Spanish to each other. It became a novelty. I don’t remember that phase of toddlerhood, but somewhere packed in a long forgotten 60s era suitcase lies an old reel to reel tape featuring yours truly doing her best Spanish impersonation. The details were in the staccato like babblings, my attempts at stressing certain syllables, and, according to Mrs. Castillo, my hand movements and pronounced head tilt. There were no real words, just a made-up group of sounds I truly thought others should understand. To the Castillos, the whole thing was fabulous. They would howl with laughter and beg me into repeat performances. My father was not so enamored. He saw it as offensive, if not to the Castillos then certainly to someone unfamiliar with my tiny vaudevillian shtick. Soon, I would begin to grasp that laughter did not equal actual communication. My emerging language skills naturally rerouted to my own native tongue. But, isn’t it true that children just say the darndest things? Take my grandkids, for instance.

“Children!” says Kelly, 6. Kelly, do you mean you’ll finally get even for all those times when adults got to do more than you did?

Baking sessions are a beloved family tradition in many households. But such sessions may not be as revered by family physicians, as baked goods are often prepared with ingredients, like sugar and butter, that aren’t necessarily sound additions to a person’s diet.

After a January kickoff with record attendance at First Day Hikes across the state, Texas State Parks’ Centennial Celebration continues with a new round of special community events this month.

We’re driving. Through hayfields and cotton. Because daddy liked to drive. Because that’s what families used to do before smartphones. Because there was little else to do except to watch lead paint dry.

I have been asked about Forney’s Texas and Pacific Railroad Depot, which had a listed address of East Pacific and Cedar Streets and was constructed somewhere around the year, 1901. I was in Cub Scouts, beginning some time in 1958 and continuing until I was old enough to join Boy Scouts during the early 1960s. Our Cub Scout Den, led by Marian Themer and Helen Stark, took an educational field trip/outing to the Forney Depot while it was still in operation, and a clerk gave us a tour of the various areas and some short talks about the operations from beginnings until then. We learned (This stuck in my mind.) that the long wooden benches had arm rails from front to back every few feet to keep the “hobos” (transients) from sleeping on them. (We tried to fit and could not!) We were allowed to get onto one of the flat carts with the “pump handles” to propel them down the tracks, and all of us guys together had a hard time making it “GO!”

The TurfMutt Foundation is an organization that advocates appreciation and caring for our green space and encourages all of us to spend time in the living landscapes around us like backyards, parks, and other green spaces. The Annual Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb. 17-20) is a great way for people – especially families and kids – to engage with the outdoors right in their own backyard, and the TurfMutt Foundation encourages everyone to participate.

This year’s State of the Community event will be held on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 5:30 p.m. at the Mesquite Arts Center, 1527 N. Galloway Ave. The public is invited and encouraged to attend this free event. Mesquite Mayor Daniel Alemán, Jr., Mesquite Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Angel Rivera, Dallas College Eastfield Campus President Dr. Eddie Tealer, and City Manager Cliff Keheley will participate in a panel discussion to celebrate our community wins, innovations, and areas for improvement.