Agriculture, oil, education and health care top the list so far, but please keep the conversation going about what’s happening in your corner of our big state and what is of highest interest to you.

We’ve been self-isolating for nearly five full months now. We feel blessed to be here, away from the congestion of the city. Away from people pressing close, masked or unmasked. Away from elevators and crowded lobbies.

Watching I watch. I watch from my isolation chamber: cozy, confined, comfortable, constricted.

We used to be a nation of imperfect humans organized around the idealism of personal freedom and boundless opportunity. But now the pursuit of these ideals is being attacked by a new malady that is grinding down all that once served the nation and its citizens so well. Perhaps this can be better understood by comparing it to an auto-immune disease where the biological systems designed to protect ultimately become the agents of our destruction. If this sounds complicated, it

The pandemic remained the theme of the news in July, much of it centering on the economy and education. The week opened with Comptroller Glenn Hegar’s forecast that Texas faces a $ 4.6 billion budget deficit and closed with the first hurricane of the season, Hanna, making landfall Saturday night near Port Mansfield.

A few of us out here are also victims of COVID-19. We are not in hospitals.

To the Editor: People who refuse to wear a face mask during the current epidemic seem to object on the grounds that the government should not be telling them how to live - that they have a “right” to not wear a mask, and to accept the risk of getting sick or not. They are missing the point: the reason we are required to wear masks is to protect everyone else - not ourselves.

To the Editor: Just renewed the registration for my vehicle and noticed that the bill is starting to resemble a phone or cable bill with all the line items. We have the registration fee, the local fee, the inspection fee and the processing and handling fee.

To the Editor: The government cannot save you. The mask cannot save you.

To the Editor: I’m very grateful that I was recently able to participate in the virtual Texas Republican Party Convention. Many were disenfranchised due to various IT snafus.