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Here we are in the sultriest, most sluggish days of the year. The term “dog days” is based on ancient Greek astrology, when sky-gazers noted that the return of Sirius, the Dog Star, to the night sky often heralded drought, miserable heat, and lethargy.

Since my feverish brain can’t seem to settle on one topic today, I’m going to borrow a format frequently used by longtime syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell, which he calls “Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene.”

I enjoyed watching a good bit of the Olympics this year. My favorite events are swimming, track and field, and gymnastics. It was also great to see Steph Curry sink a string of three-pointers near the end of the gold medal basketball game to clinch it for the USA. But the best part of the Olympics, for me, is witnessing the good sportsmanship, collegiality, and mutual support displayed by the multi-national competitors. That always gives me renewed hope for the world. I will, however, also confess that my love of country leads me to be happy about the final medal count. Seems the good old USA is still pretty great – not that I ever had any doubt.

I was very late to the party on this, but I worked my way through all eleven seasons of “The Walking Dead” this summer. The gore involved is undoubtedly too much for many people (I watched a couple of episodes at my mom’s house, turned the volume down low, and told her not to look. The next thing I heard was “Oh, yuck!” and I said “I told you not to look!”). But I came to see that the story arcs are not so much about gratuitous blood and guts as they are about redemption, strength, relationships, bravery, compassion, and the battle between good and evil. In addition, the writers surely could deliver cliffhanger after cliffhanger—when you’re streaming a 42-minute show, it’s just so easy to go on and watch another. It was also special fun to see the episodes filmed in Hogansville and the off-season Renaissance Festival fairgrounds in Fairburn.

A relative moved to LaGrange this summer a couple of weeks before he was to start his new job, and he has marveled at how easy and quick it was to establish care with a new doctor, veterinarian, optometrist, and barber, and also how much lighter on his pocketbook all these services were compared to what he’s been used to. He has found everyone to be amiable and helpful and is already making new friends.

School got off to a great start except for some AC issues that our support staff had to quickly attend to (these darn dog days!). Students and teachers appear to be pumped. Our new superintendent has visited all campuses as well as sporting events, and she is very complimentary of how systems are running. She is truly happy to be in our community and is meeting challenges head on while maintaining her reassuring, calm, genuine good nature. Dr. Shumate was who we needed five years ago, and Dr. Hazel is who we need now. Although my tenure on the board is short, I feel good about our new chapter.

Oh, and did I mention how hot it’s been? My own dog, who usually likes to go outside whenever I offer, has determined that she only needs to go outside after breakfast and after dinner. In the hours between, she just lifts her head and looks at me like I’m crazy when I go to the backdoor and call her name. She sighs and returns to her prone position under the ceiling fan. Even she has no affection for the dog days.