Columns/Opinions

   Hey, there’s good news about the Memorial Stadium press box elevator. 
   The elevator has malfunctioned for two straight Friday nights following Blackcat games. 
   When the elevators act up, everybody up there – announcers, coaches, spotters, and radio – have only one avenue toward freedom and that’s to walk down the steep slope of stairs. 
   Perhaps that doesn’t seem like too big a deal, unless you have lower back problems. 
   And then there’s additional question why the elevators are acting up so quickly after the stadium construction was completed earlier this year. 
   The issue surfaced briefly at school board Monday night, only as a mention of it’s being worked on. 
   I hate long-winded repair explanations. 
   If you’re wondering how all of those people were in the towering, mile-high (not really) press box, it worked earlier in the day when everybody wanted to ascend. 
   Later, it didn’t go up or down. 

   I recently went on an adventure to Rosenberg with my best friend Jessie and had my first-ever experience eating at Razzoo’s Cajun café just down the road in Sugar Land. 
   I know that you probably can’t believe such a confession, but, it’s true and I’m glad we were finally able to rectify my curiosity. 
   Plus, it seems a little weird to admit something out loud to our readers, but, it’s true. 
   My Cajun cuisine experience has been woefully underdeveloped outside of my uncle’s occasional gumbo from childhood memories. 
   Well, and that one time I tried fried alligator on a stick at the Texas Renaissance Festival – and that time made me want a bottle of barbecue sauce to make up for the dried out fare. 
   So, I was a little bit out of my depth and to be fair, I know it isn’t like, the most legit Cajun food ever, but, certainly was more than I was initially expecting. 

   Election Day is just a week away. Will your situation change as an investor after the votes are counted? 
   Maybe not. No matter who wins, the financial markets may show some politically driven volatility, but that often happens around elections, and it typically doesn’t last long. 
   Still, sometime in the future, we could see election-related changes that could affect your investment strategy, such as a new capital gains tax rate or policies that positively or negatively affect companies in which you may want to invest. 
   In any case, while it may be a good idea to watch for these developments, your main emphasis, in terms of your investment decisions, should remain on your goals and what you need to do to achieve them. 
   At least once a year, review your portfolio carefully to make sure your investments are aligned with your goals. 

   All I can say is that Nov. 3 can’t get here too soon.  
   I voted early and it took longer to walk in and out than it took to vote, which totaled less than 5 minutes.  
   That was at least accomplished but the political ads are relentless. I can only say that the amount of money being spent is astronomical.  
   It wouldn’t be so bad if the same ad wasn’t run every 15 minutes.  
   I’m at the point that I hardly care who wins - just end this. Now I know what psychological warfare is like.  
   As for the equity markets, it seems that earnings are not as important as stimulus packages.  
   I do believe that we need to help small business.  
   It does bother me, however, that there are hundreds of millions of unspent stimulus dollars from the previous stimulus.  
   Small businesses do need our help or they will be gone, if not already.  
   I do not see this as a positive for the equities markets.  

   A precious fifth grader rallied us together Friday morning for our second Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS) meeting. 
   Her announcements worked well and helped assemble a full house in the distance learning lab. We are ironing out some details still. We plan to start earlier and conquer one technology issue we encountered this week. Her determination has encouraged me, other staff, and the kids who attend. 
   She asked me to help her because I know her, she is in my homeroom, and she also knows I helped for years over at the junior high. 
   I found this old column today from several years ago and decided to share it for the week in honor of her and the other students still leading the way on their campuses. 
   “Friday mornings are one of my favorite times of the week. I hang out with a bunch of junior high kids at Fellowship of Christian Athletes, otherwise known as F.C.A. 

   Moses saw many great miracles during his life. He did great work following the Lord. 
   One miracle happened when he was unaware. He was a young baby, and the ruler of Egypt inflicted hard labor on the Israelites and was afraid of them because they had grown in number. 
   The Pharaoh called for the death of the Israelites newborn sons. Moses’ mother gave birth to him and hid him for three months. It gets difficult because she knows what the Egyptians will do if they find him. 
   The Lord works a miracle. She takes a wicker basket, covers it, and sends the basket carrying the baby down the river. She watches her precious baby go along the water alone. 
   The royal family sees the basket with the baby and decides to adopt him. Later they got Moses’ actual mother to nurse and take care of the baby. They even gave her wages for her work. 

   So, I’ve been a fan of Liam Neeson since he popped up as Qui-Gon Jinn in “Star Wars: Episode 1-Phatnom Menace” in 1999. 
   And lately I’m used to him being the gravelly voiced middle-aged man with a particular set of skills that may be from military experience and lend themselves to making him a force to be reckoned with as he pursues some sort of vengeance. 
   That means I have to preface this with, if you’ve seen him as Brian Mills in the “Taken” trilogy, then he’s pretty much playing the same action thriller role in this film. 
   As long as you don’t have a problem with watching him kick butt for retribution and guaranteeing the safety of his loved ones, then feel free to bask in all his threatening glory in “Honest Thief.” 
   Honest Thief is an action thriller film directed by Mark Williams, from a screenplay by Williams and Steve Allrich. 

   Hello Matagorda County! Hope everyone is doing alright and has their costumes picked out for Halloween (even if you’re just doing virtual Trick-o-Treating… if that’s a thing)!  
   Have y’all been making some meals with local seafood for National Seafood Month? 
   I sure hope so!  
   I know I have had a seafood-based meal at least once a week this month and it’s been great. 
   It’s given me the opportunity to go to local seafood & bait shops that I haven’t gone into before and try out new recipes with the local products.  
   I have also learned quite a bit this month about buying seafood. 
   If you are unfamiliar with local fish shops and they seem a little overwhelming to you, it’s okay.  
   They can be a bit intimidating at first with their ice stands of whole fish, shrimp, and frozen products.  

   I keep hearing around town from various folk that the masks go off Nov. 3.
   I’m assuming that means that the whole COVID-19 ordeal will be over when one political party or the other wins out.
   Usually, it’s Republican partisans inferring the masks and pandemic is a Democrat-media concoction aimed at hurting Trump’s re-election.
   So it could be a win-win situation.
   If the GOP prevails throughout Nov. 3, then presumably the offending masks will disappear.
   Or does it mean that if the Democrats win, they will announce the pandemic theater is over and the masks can be shed and social-distancing will be a thing of the past.
   And what about the whole suffering and sacrificing because of COVID-19, not mention 215,000 or so deaths?
   Haven’t heard that part of the tale and Trump’s people say the 215,000 COVID-19 deaths are inflated.

   I have to admit that sometimes there are topics or events that completely go over my head and seem to have some irrational subtext.
   Take Halloween celebrations for example.
   This year is the first time since 2015 that Halloween has fallen on a Saturday.
   It’s almost a prime time to have an event of some sort downtown like “Trick or Treat around the Square.”
   Sadly, that time-honored event was laid to rest last year.
   There’s been a variety of reasons why downtown merchants don’t want to participate.
   I’ve heard them all by mouth or second-hand accounts at civic organizational meetings.
   Some businesses have said that they spend too much money on candy and don’t see return customer traffic, or profits generated by the event.
   Others claim that they’re worried about the security of their businesses when so many come in costume and don’t feel safe.