Welcoming the winds of change.

It’s no secret — I’VE GOT A VERY QUIRKY HUSBAND. On Sunday I finally convinced Sam that it’s time to cash in all the coins he’s been collecting in the five-gallon Sparkletts bottle at the back of our walk-in closet. Trust me, it wasn’t easy to talk him into this.

Apparently it’s been Sam’s lifetime ambition to fill his jar all the way to the top, and at the moment — after almost nine years — he’s still about three inches short of that goal. But we’ve got an expensive patio expansion project planned this summer that includes fancy-stamped concrete and a custom-designed cedar arbor, and we believe there’s at least $2,000 hanging out in that jar. TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS. This is nothing to sneeze at.

To make life easier I ordered an essential coin-counting kit (see above) from Amazon.com. However, we still need a few million wrappers. Oy.

In other news, municipalities all over the Dallas area had local elections on Saturday, and I’m pleased to report that Mayberry Mesquite is no longer dry because RESIDENTS FINALLY VOTED TO APPROVE RETAIL LIQUOR SALES after defeating the same proposition three times in five years. Most Texans like to get drunk and the rest are Southern Baptists.

In any event, liquor sales will be a very big deal here since we’ll finally get to keep all that extra revenue we’ve been losing to Mount Pilot Garland and Rowlett. Yee-hah, and thank y’all for reading this.