Dear Editor: As we quickly approach the August 2 primary election, I want to thank our county election officials and poll workers who work tirelessly to ensure the security and integrity of our elections. Second, I want to remind voters they have multiple options for how to cast their ballot, including in-person on Election Day, advance in-person voting, and advance by mail ballot.

* Ah, Summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it! Russel Baker * In summer, the song sings itself. William Carlos Williams * Each fairy breath of summer, as it blows with loveliness, inspires the blushing rose.

I've come to believe there are two kinds of people in the world: those who love roller coasters, aka “thrill rides,” and those who don't. I unapologetically fit in with the latter, and I proved it last week when we took our youngest grands to Silver Dollar City. But it was there I came to understand the power that our youngest granddaughter, Karsyn, age 10, and her not-so-little brother, Jackson, 7, have in working magic to get this Memaw to do things that I would never, ever-in-mylifetime do: that is to ride, not one, not two, but THREE “thrill” rides that I would never, ever-in-my-lifetime do.

* The Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

Inner Strength We were traveling last week, and I plan on filling y’all in on how that went as we took our two youngest grandkids camping at Silver Dollar City: amid record-high gas prices and potentially record-high heat. And, yes, I have lost the last marble in my wee brain as it just rolled down into the air conditioning vent.

4TH OF JULY! * By signing the Declaration of Independence, the fifty-six Americans pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor It was no idle pledge…..Nine signers died of wounds during the Revolutionary War, five were captured or imprisoned. Wives and children were killed, jailed, mistreated or left penniless.

The theme of the 2022 Symphony in the Flint Hills Signature Event was, ironically, “Weather in the Flint Hills.” It had been three years since we had last been to the Symphony concert out on the Kansas prairie, and we were so eager to go again. Apparently, so were the more than 7,000 others in attendance.

THIS AND THAT * Thank you from my heart to those who sent cards and offered words of sympathy after the loss of my brother. * America without soldiers would be like God without His angels.

Kansas was recently ranked as the “least beautiful state” by the food and travel website Thrillist.

FOR MY BROTHER “Time for me to fly Oh, I've got to set myself free. Time for me to fly And that's just how it's got to be.