We have had some beautiful sunsets of late on the Florida panhandle courtesy of drifting smoke from some Canadian wildfires. On behalf of my fellow Canadians, “You are welcome!”
I have been going through old issues of newspapers this past week and I wish I had more time. I should go through a volume of old newspapers a week, and I also should clean my house for one hour a week, but I don’t do either. What do I find the time to do? A lot! I have a huge number of priorities and interests. Someone told me this week they were worried about me and wondered how I find time to do everything.
That’s the question I’ve had to ask myself. My answer is a resounding “no,” but ultimately, what matters most is how others perceive me. If the general perception is that I sometimes come across that way, then I must acknowledge that. Public perception carries weight, more than I’d like to admit, even to myself.
I see a lot of excitement from coaches and fans in Florida in the wake of Georgia changing the rules for transferring at the high school level.
The state athletic association there is inserting a bylaw stating any athlete who transfers multiple times within the state after his or her ninth grade year is ineligible to compete for one year.
The wider culture has designated this Sunday “Father’s Day,” but if you attend the worship service at COMPASS Church, you will hear me refer to it only as the Lord’s Day, just as I do on the Sunday designated “Mother’s Day.” Our culture is eagerly jettisoning any reference to God, so I have taken this small stand to preserve Sundays as the Lord’s Day, at least among believers. Nonetheless, we do honor our fathers and mothers on those Lord’s Days because it is biblical to do so, not just one day a year, but every day.
You may have read the following before or in the paper, but it needs to be repeated because there are still tickets available to the party of the century, the Navarre Centennial Ball. If you miss it, there won’t be another one for one hundred years. The Centennial Committee is selling the tickets on the sales platform, Eventbrite, and Eventbrite let us know this morning that 61% of ticket sales are usually done in the last two weeks before an event. That might work for a fishing rodeo, but not an event with a plated dinner. We have about 56 tickets left to sell, but truth be told, we could add a few more if needed. I’ve heard from a few people that they don’t want to dress up. I didn’t pick the dress code, but there are people that like to dress up and there are those that do not. Feel free to wear whatever you would feel comfortable in going to a wedding or church. You don’t have to own a ballgown, but if you want to wear a tux or ballgown, you will not be in the minority. I do know a few men who have told me they are going to wear a tux with flip flops.
I’m not sure what you think of the best-of-three series for high school baseball in Florida, but I liked it.
Apparently the FHSAA wasn’t as big of a fan as it as the series set-up will a look a little different in 2026.
The young man I give guitar lessons to each week in exchange for him mowing my grass has graduated from high school and, after a few summer vacation trips with family, will be heading off to college. That means – gasp! – I am back to mowing my own grass! That prospect sent me searching online sales sites where I found a used riding mower for sale locally.
I’m starting to feel “up there” in age – but only because of events and not because of how I feel. As we discovered a few weeks ago, I founded this newspaper 25 years ago. Since that time, I’ve seen a lot, and when I talk about “I remember when,” I sound like people that looked much older when I was younger and sat around a picnic table and recounted times past. I noticed that Patrick Moore is on our cover this week and I remember when he owned my favorite sandwich shop 30 years ago – named Dagwoods. The fact that I know who Dagwood Bumstead is dates me. He had the cartoons with his wife Blondie, and the central theme was that he liked sandwiches piled high – taller than his head. The wife’s character really caught on and she later had her own strip called, “Blondie.” I remember when (here I go again) Patrick had to change the name of his shop because of possible “copyright infringement.” He decided to rename his sandwich shop, All-American Heroes. I think he gave the creators of the cartoon an idea because shortly after the name change, I saw a franchise called Dagwoods, named for the comic strip. Apparently, the creators started licensing the name and I believe (I could be wrong) that they got the idea from Patrick. My favorite sandwich that Patrick made was the Cashew Chicken and I could only eat half of it. We wish Patrick well on his next adventure in California.
