I was in my early 20s. The ladies I would spend most of a day with every June and November were, shall we say, a wee bit older. They were grandmothers, most all of them farm wives who had spent most of their own lives working from home.

Is your scalp crawling? If not, you probably haven't spent much time outdoors in Hamilton County recently. It's been wet... very wet; it's been damp... very damp; and humid... very humid.

That's all it takes. That and one warm day.

I realized recently just how much Dad loved Mom. Just how wrapped around her little finger he must have been... way back when they were first married in the 1950s... before I, their fifth, came along.

There's a lot of debate these days about immigrants who cannot or will not speak English. While I believe fluency in English is critical to economic success and to acclimation to our culture, America will always have bilingual families.

I know what you're thinking. "Where does that guy find all those places?" Mostly, I take the side roads. Mostly, I drive the by-ways, not the highways.