"Never do yourself what you can afford to pay someone else to do."  That is a motto my brother lives by.  Had I lived by it, too, I could have saved myself a large expense, much griminess, and a painful injury to my hand the last time I tried to fix a leaking toilet.

H.L. Mencken defined "Puritanism" as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."  The clerks at the Department of Motor Vehicles must be Puritans.  They seem to do their best to see that each person who comes in to get a license or registration, has to wind through a confusing maze of lines, must wait an eternity for help, and has to remain standing the entire time.

Writer Dave Gentry once said, "True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable."  I know exactly what Mr. Gentry means.  My best friend, Elizabeth Reynolds, and I, can talk on the phone for hours or we can sit together in the mountains or at the beach and just enjoy the silence.  Since she's been my best friend for twenty-five years, we're able to connect in many ways.