Commissioners call special meeting, 2024 final

Fisher County Commissioners have called a special meeting for December 31, 2024, 9 a.m.

The only item of action listed on the meeting agenda is to appoint a sheriff.

A treasure trove for Kindle readers

- my kindle -

For those who are using an older Kindle, the Project Gutenberg website is a boon.

You can download free ebooks to your device using your Send-to-Kindle E-mail.

You can find your personal Kindle email by using this path: Kindle Home page (default page when you turn it on)>Menu (button with a lot of little lines, second from right)>Settings>Scroll to second page (using forward button). Save that email in your contacts list to make things easier later on.

Go to the Gutenberg website and search for a book and click on it. Several options for downloading will be given. I use "EPUB (no images, for older E-Readers)". Click to download to your computer. If that file won't download, try a different one.

Find the download on your computer (I have a downloads shortcut file on my desktop). Rename the file to the book title. Don't change the file type (.epub). This is so when you send it to your Kindle, you can find the book easier. Otherwise, it shows up as "page2812" or somesuch. 

Open your email program, click on New mail, put your Send-to-Kindle E-mail address in the To box. The subject doesn't matter. Then: Insert>Attach File>Browse This Computer. Find the renamed book file and double click it to attach it to the email, then hit Send. You'll get an error email from Amazon if the file won't work for your device. Try another one!

Go to your Kindle device. The new book will show up on the top of the Home page. If it doesn't, look in Archives. Sometimes it is a little slower than when a book is ordered from Amazon, but it shouldn't take too much longer. Sync as needed. The last one I got from Gutenberg showed up faintly in Archives, then sent itself to the Home page.

Some experimentation may be necessary. The same download file might not work for you, or it may show up in a different place on your device. But you can figure it out! Once you do, you won't be at a loss for the next book to read.

Almost never nice

I wish I could be fulfilled by writing inspiring and entertaining articles, like journalists Tumbleweed Smith, Don Newbury and Chet Garner. I enjoy their stories about human interests and humor, but my style tends toward looking for a fly in the ointment; the rule that is broken; the lie that is told.

I do have some funny family stories that have no foe in them. 

There's the year my mom and dad were stripping cotton by themselves. My mom's job was to stand in the trailer and distribute cotton while Dad drove the stripper. Well, they had a bumper crop that year, some unbelievable bales per acre. Dad said he was going along when he looked back to see Mom covered nearly to the top of her head in cotton. He said she was pretty mad about that.

Or the time my dad sent my son chasing an armadillo. Dad, my son and I were down in the pasture when we spooked an armadillo. My dad said "Get him!" and my son, being about 11 or 12, tore after it. It went down a hole and sonny boy had tight hold of that critter's tail. I was alarmed, but my dad was laughing himself silly. He said, "He'll never be able to pull that armadillo out of that hole!" He was right.

Then there's the one about when my grandpa decided he was going to be independent. He had been living with and working for his grandfather. My grandpa took a lease on a farm on the river, north of Rotan. "I'm going out on my own," he declared. But every Saturday he would be downtown asking his grandfather for some money to get him by.

There are so many stories: the time Grandpa decided to neuter all the cats; the tribulations of Oscar the cat; escapades about the dogs Spot and Lightning; coon hunting incidents; the day the goat disappeared, and on and on.

Hey, maybe I can write about something without a cynical view or skepticism. I've just written this, haven't I?

Look another direction

In regard to politics, I've always thought it was better to cast the eye locally rather than nationally, because the votes count one for one in a county or city, making the power of a constituent stronger. 

I am coming around to the idea that the closer view is no more enlightening or meaningful than that of an unknown horizon. 

Fisher County is starting out the year with three appointed people in elected positions. The sheriff, the county treasurer and the county lawyer have been chosen by the commissioners, not by the voters. 

The treasurer's change has not been announced officially. I'm reading between the lines. In the first commissioners meeting of December, the county judge, Ken Holt, said the signature card on the county accounts needed to be changed to Brandi Duniven, because "Jeanna is...". That's all. Fill in the blank.

It is a tragedy to lose Jeanna Parks as treasurer, if that is what's happening. I consider her to be the voice of basic, factual reason; steadfast; no hiding or dodging. Her numbers don't lie. They are posted with the commissioners court minutes. They are transparent. In Parks' case, that word is meaningful, not just thrown out there as a cover-your-ass blanket statement.

The special meeting called by the commissioners mid-December, with an agenda that indicated it was for precinct three funding to wrap up the year, seemed to really be about commissioners Gordon Pippin (precinct one) and Preston Martin (precinct three, final term) to have one last go at each other. There are other, more important issues that could have justified a meeting. More is not said, than is said, at these get-togethers.

So, Duniven, administrative assistant to the Fisher County Treasurer, will be taking over Parks' role, it looks like; Morgan Brooks, Sweetwater lawyer, and soon to be Nolan County Attorney, has been appointed to take over Michael Hall's spot as Fisher County Attorney; an unknown person will be taking over as Fisher County Sheriff in January, whether that person is Tom Pohlman, the currently appointed sheriff, or another individual chosen by the commissioners court.

This is the view of a citizen from the west side of the county, with no courthouse affiliations. This is what it looks like from the outside.

Things going on

- IREN, Childress Co., Texas -

I didn't get on here in time to announce the special meeting held by Fisher County Commissioners this morning, but it's online at the Double Mountain Chronicle facebook page, if you'd like to watch it. It will also be posted on the Fisher County Courthouse Texas YouTube site.

I drove up to the Childress area to check out the IREN bitcoin mining project going on there. First I drove through a new solar construction zone, mistaking it for the IREN site. There's a lot of building going on in that area, around a community called Kirkland, but Childress County has a lot of space, and these huge projects seem to take up a small portion of it when looking at all that sky.

Between Childress and Guthrie, Guthrie and Aspermont, there is restful landscape to lay the eye on from horizon to horizon. I stopped in Paducah, between Childress and Guthrie, and got a cheeseburger from the Dairy Maid. There's more fries comes with that order than I can eat. Reminds me of the old days (1970's).

There's some activity going on out by the Wetsel Substation, where IREN has bought property for the Fisher County bitcoin mining project. It's just north of where the Claytonville gas plant used to be.

So, while I was looking to the left, something else was happening on my right. In Sweetwater, a data storage facility has been installed on Sam Houston Street. Veribi has a much smaller operation than IREN. I don't even know if it's the same product. If you stop at the 1 1/2 acre site and listen, it sounds like a giant evaporative cooler.

My guess is that there are some lucrative government subsidies for this industry, much like that for the windmills and solar farms. Chances are they'll be popping up everywhere, big and small.

One other thing, the Dollar General in Roby has opened. That is massive progress in this county and brings a department store a few more miles closer to my house.

December 2024 public meetings

• Monday, December 9, 7 a.m. - Fisher County Appraisal District Board of Directors
• Monday, December 9, 9 a.m. - Fisher County Commissioners Court
• Monday, December 9, 6 p.m. - Roby Consolidated Independent School District Board of Trustees
  
• Thursday, December 12, 7 a.m. - Rotan City Council
• Thursday, December 12, noon - Roby City Council
• Monday, December 16, 7:00 p.m. - Rotan Independent School District Board of Trustees
  
• Monday, December 23, 5:30 p.m. - Fisher County Hospital District Board of Directors

Meetings that are highlighted have been confirmed. All others have been placed on their default date.