Each week, usually on Thursday or Friday, but often Saturday or Monday thanks to the current timeliness of the United States Postal Service, I get a slug of mail. From around the area, state, and country, newspapers of all types, sizes, and shapes flow into my mailbox.

Back in the day, the Omaha World-Herald provided me with a company car and the instructions: “drive across the state and find some stories.” It was obviously a more formal command than that, something like “if you like your job, you’ll write something interesting.” It was an incredible adventure in various vintages of Ford Taurus. On the road, you realize that there are fascinating stories— sometimes tragic and sad, sometimes heart-warming and uplifting—in every corner of the state.

State lawmakers have long since finished their long, seventeen- day special session in Lincoln and headed back home. The summer session unfolded as a lot of people, including me, expected: A lot of ideas for reducing property taxes were discussed, but only a small, incremental change, one that will result in a three-percent drop in property taxes for some taxpayers, was passed.

In my closet, I have a t-shirt that I rarely wear but that is embossed with a saying that I think dictates my life. “I talk to myself, because sometimes I need expert advice.” Personally, I think it is funny in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way to begin with, but the real reason that I find the saying to be comical is that, from time to time, when you live alone, that is the only advice that you are ever going to receive.

Nebraska isn’t known as a battleground state when it comes to presidential elections. That tag usually goes to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, along with Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona.

With a snap of your fingers, we are all suddenly in the middle of a new season. School is back in session.

All of us in central Nebraska, I imagine, have a bevy of things for which we ought to be grateful. However, in the modern era, the methods by which we express that gratitude have evolved.

As we all know, state legislators have been called back to Lincoln for a special session this summer to tackle the state’s high property taxes. As has been written here before, good luck with that.

On Sunday, the world’s top golfer wept, and, if I have to admit it, I got teary-eyed too. Unless you have been living under a rock, there is a good chance that you have encountered, in one way or another, the Olympic fever that has swept the globe and has engulfed the United States.

Summer is usually a relaxing time in Lincoln. College students have left, state lawmakers have gone home, the weather gets hot, the backyard tomatoes get ripe, and the biggest debate around town is whether this is the year the Huskers become relevant again in football.