Spring has sprung in Texas, which means my sojourn in the Lone Star State is fast ending. Ol’ Dutch and Miss Trixie, the Yellow Rose of Texas herself, have been spending our winters down in the big hat country for some time now and at least miss the white goodness in Colorado. Ol’ Dutch worked up quite the aversion for cold and snow after 30 years of fighting it while working and so it is a nice relief from the shoveling and sitting around looking out that snow brings me normally.

Over the years I have written about the Sun, moon, Pluto and five other planets. Now, it is time to write about Uranus. It is an interesting planet with an interesting name. How many of us pronounce it the crazy way instead of the proper way?

I recently read a column in the opinion section from "News Literacy Project." After doing some research on the organization I found its overall mission well-intentioned but perhaps a bit misleading in today's media environment. Two examples for instance are that both the NY Times and Washington Post both endorse and donate to the NLP which is fine.

This past week still saw Miss Trixie stuck in scenic Amarillo, Texas helping her father who suffered some real physical issues. Which means Ol’ Dutch has had to pull out some of the old Bachelor tricks to survive with her gone. What with shopping and cooking and cleaning and laundry already having to be done by yours truly, Miss Trixie is walking on thin ice as far as being needed around the homeplace. It's not that I do not miss her as I truly do but I found out if you stay away too long pretty soon you are not seen as needed near as much.

News literacy is ​the ability to recognize the standards of fact-based news in order to trust, share, and act on accurate information. In a Digital Age where information spreads like wildfire, it is becoming more challenging than ever to separate fact from fiction. Anyone has the ability to create and share information, whether true or false. News literacy teaches about the importance of a free press in our democracy while also demonstrating how to decipher credible information to determine what is trustworthy.

Last week’s newspapers had a great article about the Rio Grande County Board of County Commissioners airport update. Thank you, Lyndsie Ferrell!

Miss Trixie and I had a little adventure this past week as we had to go to Amarillo, Texas, due to a family illness. Her father, who goes by the name Shot, had to have open heart surgery while passing through the Texas panhandle and made a detour into no man's land to get it.

Everyone knows Congress is broken. For decades, the swamp in Washington D.C. has embraced corrupt and incestuous policymaking at the expense of hard-working Americans. From passing $1.8 trillion, 4,155-page long spending bills just before Christmas — to secret backroom deals negotiated by lobbyists and special interests — to passing $500 billion suspension bills without a single Member even having to cast a vote — these broken processes are not what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they established our Constitutional Republic.

Every week it seems that Ol’ Dutch and Miss Trixie get into some kind of shenanigans of one type or another. I am not sure if it's due to the fact that we go out of our way to maybe find such hijinks or others come looking for us and involve us in their schemes.

Christmas came and went in a flash and all I can say is WOW! Miss Trixie in her usual manner made a huge splash with presents for the grandkids and I doubt that we will be able to do better than that in any following gift-giving. For those of you that know her it's not a surprise but if you do not, let's just say the best decision you will ever make is to invite her to any potluck or other event where she can share her bounty. You will not be sorry.

SAN LUIS VALLEY — Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, HPAI for short, has now been detected in the SLV according to a recent article by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and more wild bird mortalities have been reported since the announcement.

Winter has certainly arrived across our Nation. This week Colorful Colorado and the West is getting some much-needed snow on our mountains, which means there will be rain events further east and south. All much appreciated after last summer's drought.