The summer has officially started! What a year it has been already and it’s only half gone. As I drive through the suburbs, I can smell the barbeques of families preparing for dinner out on the patio or deck. What a great time it is to have family and friends near.

Unpredictable! That seems to be the word of the year. Mother Nature is unable to decide if it’s going to be sunny and warm, cloudy and cold or torrential rain storms. Even the weather forecasters are unable to “predict” correctly, so we almost have to have two changes of clothes with us whenever we venture out. Television shows – the good ones seem to get cancelled and the outcomes of the reality shows have not been what was “predicated”. American Idol was one of my family’s favorites. There was an uproar with David Cook winning over “Little David”, as we called him, which goes against what all the stats were saying.

I hope that everyone enjoyed their Easter as we now look forward to Memorial Day!  As we all know, this time of the year, we’re likely to hear a number of weather alerts, so we do hope that everyone has an emergency plan prepared.  We definitely would not want to see or hear of any of our readers being hurt. 

Happy spring to you!  April showers will be bringing those May flowers sooner than we know.  What’s that you say…you can’t read through the entire paper right now because you’re busy with spring cleaning?  Come on, I know you can take a few moments to browse through all of the amazing information that our writers and advertisers have provided for you.  However, don’t just spring clean what you can see, make sure you’re cleaning up what you can’t see as well.  What does that mean? 

Well, how was your celebration? Mine you ask, fine thank you, I spent it with my wonderful wife, my son and our two grandchildren, we played board games, remember “Trouble” and “Sorry” well both games are still fun. Playing the games again made me reflect on those times I played as a boy with my mother and father. Do you ever want to go back, I do sometimes, but since we really can’t go back, instead I try to instill those same family values in our children and grandchildren as my parents did in us.

With Thanksgiving behind us, my hope is that you have as much to be thankful for as I do.  

I was personally blessed to have enjoyed time with my family. As we sat around the table, my  

father shared stories and reminded us of some of the things our mother used to do when she was with us.

Relatively Speaking You’ve managed to carve a few minutes of personal time out of your busy schedule. Wouldn’t it be great if you could watch an entertaining show based on your favorite hobby, family history? What if you could choose which family history topic you wanted to watch and when you wanted to watch it.  

Travis County Master Gardener Tour:  Inside Austin Gardens - Saturday, April 19th    

Is it just me, or are we watching 2008 sail away into the horizon?  It seems like we just celebrated the New Year and here we are preparing for the spring to arrive.  Though whomever it was that made up our calendars did their best to keep February around longer by giving us 29 days this year it still isn’t slowing down the speed at which this year is already passing us by.

As we begin our 25th year of publication and I reflect on our last five months of involvement with the Senior Advocate, since the announcement in the August edition. It is only now that we begin to realize what a great history we are part of and have inherited. There are so many wonderful people that I wish to thank, especially our Readers, Advertisers, Columnists, and Professional Organizational Partnerships

They say that the only thing that is for certain is change.
As you know from reading the front page of this issue, we have entered into negotiations with a buyer for the paper that Dave and I sincerely believe are the right fit for the Advocate—and for Central Texas Seniors. Here’s why:

Viewpoints by Dana Smith    

It is a fact that Michael Vick, the flamboyant, gifted quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Every American is accorded that right, and he is entitled to no less. A grand jury indictment is not a conviction; it simply means that the jury was convinced there was enough evidence to warrant a criminal trial.