Out and About Blog by Norm Stutesman

To all my Chinese friends, I wish you a very Happy New Year. To everyone else, I wish you a day filled with much happiness and the best of luck. If you enjoy being outside enjoying whatever winter has to offer, you’ll want to Discover Winter Nights at Dr. T.K. Lawless Park, near Vandalia this Saturday evening, February 9, from …

The last I checked, we were fighting a war on drugs. This is a great idea, but I’m afraid we’re losing. Perhaps the penalties for drug possession aren’t strong enough. Who knows? I did some research recently by watching television in the evening. I don’t care what network or channel you might enjoy watching, but just about all of them …

“I don’t snore.” A common phrase heard by many. You have to look hard to find someone who will admit to snoring. Just about everyone snores at one time or another. If you sleep best by sleeping on your back, the chances are you snore. Snoring is not a problem if you sleep alone. This is one reason that some …

Sometime this year, many of you will leave the workplace and begin the life of a retiree. This should mean that you’ll have more time on your hands. In most cases, this doesn’t work out, because once you retire, you find that you become busier with other activities and don’t have time to work. I am speaking from experience. Once …

Writing checks to pay bills is something we all do less and less these days. With the internet, it is much easier to handle bill paying electronically. You’d be surprised, however, how many people don’t use a computer. For these individuals, the one thing facing them now is remembering to date their checks for 2019. It happens every January for …

Happy New Year to all! Call me old-fashioned, but I do have some New Year’s resolutions that I will try to stick with this year. They might seem a bit boring, but they are important to me. If you’re interested, here they are: I will try to be better at remembering someone’s name. I will not always say “Yes” when …

The column this week will not contain advice, helpful hints or personal opinions. Instead, I have decided to include things that might bring a chuckle or two. I have a collection of witty sayings and quotes, and I feel it’s time to clear some of my research folders. Church bulletins are great for passing on announcements of coming events. Here …

For all procrastinators out there, one week from today is Christmas. You have only seven days to get those gifts of love purchased. By now, all the parcels that you wanted to send via US Mail should already be on their way. You may still, of course, take your items to the post office and they will do what they …

Perhaps it’s just me, but this year has really flown by. There are only a little over two weeks left before we welcome in 2019. It’s not too early to start gathering your receipts and totaling up your expenses for 2018. By the way, two weeks from today is Christmas. No worries. I still have 13 days before I need …

The regular college football season is pretty much finished except for the bowl games. The pro teams still have some games to play, which is fine with me. I don’t know if anyone else is puzzled with the different jerseys some of the teams are wearing, but I can’t help but wonder where they come up with some of the …