Help! I'm being bugged to death

There’s something that’s been bugging me – literally.
I can only assume that dealing with bugs is the norm for people here in south Texas. It’s something I’m not used to and I don’t like it.
For starters, our office is inundated with crickets. Most of them are dead, thanks to a good exterminating service. But still, dead and dying crickets are everywhere. But that’s nothing compared to the war we’ve been waging at home.
Roaches, ants, termites, spiders, mosquitoes, silverfish, flies and lice have infested our humble abode. But now fleas have taken over. They’ve nearly paralyzed our pets, especially our older cat. They’re driving the rest of us insane.
A couple weeks ago my oldest son developed some kind of rash or infection on his feet. We took him to the doctor and he was put on heavy-duty antibiotics while a biopsy was conducted. He stayed home from school for fear his infection was contagious. It came back as flea bites.
We have tried all kinds of bug bombs, sprays, carpet powders, and flea medications for the dog and cats. Nothing works.
This is a plea from a desperate man: if you know of anything that will rid of us fleas, please … no, I beg you, let me know.
I’m not used to dealing with bugs on this level. We have bugs in Colorado, where I’m from, but they’re not in this kind of abundance and they’re certainly not this aggressive. My poor, aforementioned cat has just about plucked himself bald on his lower half trying to rid himself of the infestation. He sits on high perches and stays away from the carpet.
I washed the dog and cats the other day, taking a pair of tweezers to them. I bet I plucked and washed off hundreds of the little pests, but barely made a dent in the population roaming their coats.
I feel like all of my free time and disposable income are being wasted playing exterminator. On top of that, I have a constant creepy, crawly, itchy feeling. I just want this madness to stop.

Shameless plug for 'Joseph'
My wife, Sandy, is part of the cast and crew performing “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at First Colony Church of Christ in Sugar Land. In addition to being one of the costumers, she plays several small roles in the musical. Through her various parts she is on stage through more than half the production.
I got to set through the first dress rehearsal Sunday afternoon and was very impressed with the quality of the production. The show is based off the Andrew Lloyd Weber production, with a few liberties. Having never seen any version of “Joseph” before, I found it entertaining, comical and inspiring.
Ron Roberts, son of Fulshear Mayor Jamie Roberts, stars in the title role. He is a very gifted performer with a disarming smile and charm. And oh boy, can he ever sing!
For me, however, the real star is Sandy. She very gracefully shines in her role as a background dancer during the Western number and as part of Potiphar’s wife’s entourage. She gets to tie up Joseph when he is thrown into jail.
Sandy is also one of the Egyptian women in Pharaoh’s court and is in the big mega-mix grand finale. I didn’t get to see the end. The rehearsal ran long, as they paused to take professional photos. I had to leave early with the boys because it was a school night and they needed to get to bed on time.
I do have tickets and will get to see the whole show in a couple weeks. It runs this Saturday and Sunday and again on Oct. 3-4. Ticket information can be found at www.firstcolonychurch.org.

How to get your stuff in the paper

How do I get my item into the newspaper?
If you’ve ever asked that question or think you might down the road, please read this. Even if you don’t, there is some useful information here to make your reading experience a little more user-friendly.
Ever since I arrived here in December, it has been my goal to make this newspaper more useful and appealing to our readers. I have always believed that a newspaper belongs to the people of the community. The paper should reflect the community. It should be easily accessible to the readership.
I try to make it as easy as possible for people to get their information into the newspaper. I just wish people would make it easier for me to help them accomplish that goal. I get bombarded with hundreds of press releases (an advertisements masquerading as press releases) each week. About 99 percent of those are for events in Houston and beyond and won’t see the light of day in our paper (unless they want to buy an ad).
I barely have enough room each week to run a calendar listing of events that are local to Waller County. I will vigorously defend putting local events in the paper before I’ll consider events well outside our coverage area. There are a lot of things happening here, which brings me back to my point.
People unknowingly make it real hard for me to get their information compiled into the “What’s Happening” calendar. They send all kinds of cute, creative, attention-getting notices that are really difficult to work into a simple paragraph of text. So here it is – my simple suggestions to help you get your information into the paper.
First, if at all possible, use e-mail. Letters and faxes have to be typed, and that takes valuable time. Please do not call and expect me to take it over the phone. I don’t always have the time to stop what I’m doing to do that.
Second, if you e-mail, please write your information out in the body of the e-mail. Opening attachments takes extra time (boy, am I lazy or what). If you do send an attachment, please make sure it is in Microsoft Word or some other common writing program. Please do not send PDFs or JPEGs of your information.
If you are sending a picture, please attach it to the e-mail as a JPEG. Do not embed it into a Word document or put it into a PDF. I can’t extract it in a big enough file to use in print.
When you do e-mail your information, please write it out in plain, simple text. Using headline-sized fonts, centered, in bright colors and in all caps may look good on your flyer, but it is a headache to convert to the tiny, 10-point type we put in the paper.
As for the content, keep it simple. Yes, I know and understand that you want to put every last detail about your event into the paper. That’s what ads are for. As far as the calendar listings go, the best I can offer you is the basic who, what, when and where. For example, The Charitable Organization will hold a Fundraiser from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, call/e-mail John Doe at …
Other items
Not everything that is submitted is meant for the calendar. I encourage people to write letters to the editor. That’s a great way to express your views on the issues of the day.
If you hold an event that I cannot cover (which, being an editorial department of one means most of them), I welcome you to submit your own write-up and photos for publication. I will run just as many as I can.
We were recently successful in getting our parent company to drop the charges of local obituaries, so we will run those again at no cost. (There is a charge for out of town obituaries.) I do request that the obituaries be submitted by the funeral homes if at all possible. That way the families have approved what is submitted and I don’t get caught in a family squabble about what should or should not be in the obit.
We still charge for wedding and engagements and those are submitted on our Website at www.wallerconewscitizen.com. Just click on the Celebrations button for all the directions. We will still do birthday ads and cards of thanks in house. Buckie Wimberly will be glad to assist you with that.
So there you have it, just a few simple suggestions that will make it much easier for you to get your information into the paper. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail me at jsouthern@hcnonline.com.

How to make a real difference in life

The major birthday season has finally passed in my family. From my mother-in-law in late July to my mother in early September, the space in between – most commonly known as August – is chuck full of family birthdays.
One family member recently hit one of the decade milestones. It was cause for some consternation. It raised the question, “what have I accomplished in my life?”
What have any of us accomplished with our lives? I think that question was best answered by the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” In that movie, George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, learns what life would have been like if he were never born. Needless to say – and this is a spoiler alert if you have not seen the movie – he discovers that all his struggles, all the pains of his life, really did make a positive impact on those around him.
Too often we do not think about what a difference we are making in this world. This is especially true when things seem to be going tough or we feel the world is against us. We can also feel that way when we look back on our lives a fail to see major accomplishments – we fail to see the forest for the trees.
Very few people will have such earth-shattering moments of consequence in their lives. The average person is, well … average. We’re born, graduate from high school and/or college, get married, have kids, become a grandparent and then move to Florida where we put on plaid shorts and black socks and spend our days playing shuffleboard and golf.
Not many get to write the Great American Novel, win a Nobel or Pulitzer prize, score touchdowns in the NFL, star in a movie or fly in space.
Where we make our mark on this earth is in our relationships. How we treat others is far more important that what physical things we leave behind. You can amass a great fortune, only to have your heirs squander it. You can set athletic records that will only be broken in time. You can build buildings that will some day crumble. You can write books that will be long forgotten.
But your relationships – how you treat those who come into your sphere of influence – will last a long time on earth and carry forward into the next phase of life. The most important relationship one can have is with Jesus Christ. Without that, the next phase of life will be nothing to look forward to.
The next most important relationships we have are with our family. No others are more dear to us than a spouse, children and parents. These relationships are so intricately intertwined that how we interact with one affects the others. That holds true as you branch out in your web of relationships to extended family members, classmates, close friends, colleagues and neighbors.
Of the funerals I’ve attended, the ones with the biggest crowds have not necessarily been those of people with great wealth and power, but those who touched lives in deep, meaningful ways. Some people come into our sphere of influence but for a season. Some come and go periodically. Others are there for the duration. No matter how long or brief the time, the way we treat them is the way they will remember us. It correlates to the way they will respond to us. It becomes our legacy.
I’ve been fortunate to have been raised by parents who cared deeply about their children and their community. They were Scout leaders, Sunday school teachers, church bus drivers, Grange leaders, baseball coaches, PTA volunteers, volunteer firefighters, church members, hard workers and are always willing to lend a hand.
They have not only impacted my life and those of my brothers, but also those of our friends and families, along with their own friends, neighbors and so on. There are a lot of us whose lives would be very different today if they were not the kind of people they are.
That legacy has been passed to me and I am trying to instill those values in my children. I’m not perfect and I seem to miss more than I hit, but I strive for the goal. I want my wife and children to think of me as a great asset and a source of unyielding love. I want those who do not like me for whatever reason to at least respect me for being honest, true and fair.
Jesus instructs us in the Bible to love our enemies. That is not an easy thing to do, but I hope that when my time comes that it can be said of me that I lived my life in such a way that I didn’t have any enemies – or at least very few.
And when I reach one of those milestone birthdays down the road, I hope I can look back on many great accomplishments. They will be found in my wife, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and friends and relatives too numerous to count. That will be a great day indeed.

Historic moment at Waller stadium

It was Waller High School’s grand homecoming – the first-ever game in their new stadium.
Somebody forgot to tell the LaMarque Cougars that, however, as the visitors made themselves at home, shutting out the Bulldogs 19-0 in the inaugural game at the brand spanking new, $18 million, 10,000-seat stadium.
Still, the game was almost a side show compared to all the festivities surrounding the opening of the stadium. I felt honored to be there and to experience this little slice of local history.
When I was in Colorado, I was privileged to be part of the teams that toured and wrote preview stories for both the Pepsi Center and Invesco Field at Mile High. I’ve been in parts of the stadium and arena that the general public will never see. I guess you could say the same for the new Waller stadium.
I got to take part in a media tour, given by assistant superintendent Danny Twardowski and public relations specialist Marianne Kosik. While facilities such as the locker rooms and press box aren’t exactly closed to the public, they are limited in access.
As one who has spent more than his share of time in hot, muggy open-air press boxes, I have a deep appreciation for the climate-controlled, glassed-in press box that towers over the stadium. Amenities like that are not common in the places I’ve been.
Friday evening was memorable with all that was going on. I got to the stadium a little after 5 p.m. and found a circus-like atmosphere with all the tailgating in the parking lot. There were plenty of booths, games, inflatable bouncers, and lots of food to be had, in addition to police and fire vehicles on display.
Inside the stadium, I was impressed with the dedication of the veteran’s memorial, complete with the fly-over in the missing man formation. There was a lot going on with the dedication and a who’s who of local dignitaries was on hand for the grand opening.
The cross country team ran the game ball from the old stadium to the new one. The band, cheerleaders, flag team and other groups gave spectacular performances. The whole thing was very well orchestrated.
At halftime, a giant ribbon was strung across the field, supported by students and representatives from just about every imaginable group, class and organization in the district, accompanied by the throng of dignitaries.
It was really nice to see the use of pyrotechnics at the game. A small barrage of fireworks was shot off at the dedication of the veteran’s memorial and again when the ribbon was cut a halftime. The evening concluded with a fireworks show, but I did not stay long enough to see it. Between being dead on my feet and having lousy luck getting action photos in the darkness, I left (with a whole bunch of others) with about 10 minutes left to play. Still, I’m told the display was great.
There were a lot of things that happened Friday night at the game. I know I am missing some and there were others I didn’t even know about. It’s a safe bet that most of Waller and the surrounding area was at the stadium that night. We had just the one opportunity to be there for the first-ever game. There are only about 8,000 people who can honestly say they were there when it opened. No doubt that number will grow as the years advance.
On the other hand, there is still an opportunity to be present when the Bulldogs score their first points on their new home field.
In all honesty, I do feel bad for the Bulldogs. They had only one shot to win their first game, and the breaks didn’t go their way. While they may have lost the first one, they can still set a winning tradition at the stadium. I remain confident that the team can and will do that.
In the meantime, there are still a lot of firsts that fans can witness the next time their beloved football team takes to the artificial turf. If you were not able to make the first home game, I highly recommend you try to make the next. This, after all, is what Friday nights in Texas is all about.