Opinion

Here’s the thing: I’m not superstitious. It all started when I was still in Mexico, visiting a gallery, and I saw a painting across the room. The composition was striking. The bottom third was black and the top twothirds were filled with a deep blue sky and great white clouds rising from the horizon. There was a bare tree on the right side and on the left was a full moon. I felt pulled into the gallery and across the room to see the picture, and that’s when the figures in the foreground became clear.

Dr. Eric Hamill is a fellowship-trained ophthalmic plastic and reconstructive surgeon focused on eyelid, eyebrow, lacrimal, and orbital surgery. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated with Highest Honors. He completed both medical school and residency at Baylor College of Medicine. He then moved to Los Angeles, California, for a two-year, ASOPRS accredited Oculofacial Plastic Surgery fellowship at the University of Southern California. Dr. Hamill is board certified by the American Academy of Ophthalmology. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor at Baylor College of Medicine where he teaches residents and fellows at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center.

It wasn’t much of a joke, as far as jokes go. I saw the man wearing two hats, one on top of the other.

Groceries, gas, and even rent have been affected by inflation but a recent increase to our telephone bills has nothing to do with it. If you have a phone, whether it is a cell phone, landline, or both, you may have noticed that the assessment fee corresponding to the Texas Universal Service Fund (TUSF) on your bill is much higher than your previous statements. The TUSF was established in 1987 by the legislature and its purpose is to ensure all residents of the state are able to obtain basic telecommunications services needed to communicate with other residents, businesses, and governmental entities.

As any family knows, managing a household budget is challenging. This challenge is even greater when preparing the city budget while serving as the voice of the taxpayers of the City of Sealy.

The evening was one of those that come back to you time after time, year after long year. It comes back and whispers of how good life can be when you’re well fed, enjoying life, and a good friend shares the front porch with you on a summer’s evening.

Isometimes envy people who have a family home to return to, a place where they grew up, where their parents or even their grandparents lived. The closest thing I have is the farmhouse where my mother grew up.

CARRIE CLASSON THE POSTSCRIPT Iwas walking down an old street in an old part of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Brightly colored wooden doors lined the streets.

CARRIE CLASSON THE POSTSCRIPT They call the impossibly complicated screen I am looking at a “dashboard,” which I do not find reassuring at all. It would be nice not to associate my ignorance of technology with crashing some out-of-control machine into a ravine, although, as I think about it, that is very much how it feels.