Opinion

Dear Neil: I planted Dreamland zinnias a week ago. One day they were fine and the next day they were dead with a mold all over them.

As the newest statewide elected official in Austin, I expected a learning curve, but 2021 has surprised even this old rodeo cowboy. My time in office started out with the impacts of COVID-19 and Winter Storm Uri, and now we are witnessing the impacts of cyberattacks on our pipelines.

When spring arrives, I can hardly wait for fresh strawberries to arrive in the supermarkets, and look forward to preparing all the delicious food items with the strawberries. The harvest of the month for May is strawberries.

Dear Neil: My variegated olive plants (not sure of the name) look like they’re dying. I could trim out the dead wood, but it provides my privacy. There is a vine growing in a portion of it. I have cut that out. I don’t know if it was involved.

It’s time for another installment of “Places you should go before you can’t tell a presidential executive order document from one of your White House German Shepherd’s training pads!” Yes, recently my wife and three teenage daughters took a week-long family trip to Charleston, S.C., also known as “the city where every meal will cost you at least two C-notes.”

It seems odd to still be discussing Winter Storm Uri in May, more than two months after it battered Texas, but that is what the Texas Legislature is doing. The storm caused severe electrical and natural gas disruptions that crippled transportation and supply chains.

As a ray of light is appearing through what has seemed like a very long, dark winter, I’ve learned through challenges and hardships that we can emerge with dignity and new knowledge about what we can endure and how we can triumph.

I’ve been hacked. Officially.

The cost of construction materials has gone through the roof - if you can still afford a roof, which isn’t very affordable right now. All I wanted to do was build a modest roof over my modest deck at my modest house.