This will be my second column designed to encourage you to recall stories based on your reminiscences. There is no better way to amuse or entertain yourself than by reminiscing, so each week I will give you some prompts from my book, “How to Write Your Life Story.” These will bring to mind memories you can jot down. Please share a reminiscence with me by email and I promise to reply with some encouraging comments.

In my lifetime I've had six dogs, but none any smarter than my last one. He was a full blood Miniature Schnauzer that I named Rolex. He loved to watch things which I think is the reason he became so smart; he loved to watch and learn.

During tough times like these, I'm always inspired by the generosity some of my fellow Texans.

We were disappointed that a countywide mandate to "stay at home" was not put in place at Wednesday's specially called County Commissioner's meeting. Deferring to the order that Governor Abbot has issued for Texas is ignoring the level of responsibility that is given to County government. -- Rhonda and Newt Cunningham

Testing only those with symptoms ignores the problem that many who carry COVID-19 did not show symptoms; nevertheless they pass the virus on to others.

Since a lot of us are staying home by ourselves, in keeping with the goal of slowing down the spread of coronavirus, I'm going to try something different with my columns. This presents you with a golden opportunity to amuse or entertain yourselves by reminiscing, so each week I will give you some prompts from my book, "How to Write Your Life Story," that will bring to mind memories you can jot down. I encourage you to share a reminiscence with me by email, and I promise to reply with some comments.

It felt so good and it felt so right,
life just seemed better in black and white.

As a small-business owner who has self quarantined since March 17, it is a little unnerving to realize it has been a week since I have been able to check my post office box or make a deposit at the bank. But that is nothing compared to the single mom with two kids who supported her family by working every hour she could clock in at a restaurant, a restaurant that is basically shut down now. It is nothing compared to the healthcare workers who are putting themselves in harm's way to protect us.

As the COVID-19 outbreak appears to wane in China, infections elsewhere in the world are surging. At the moment, Europe is the latest epi-center of the global pandemic. Early last week, Italy was rattled by an unprecedented increase in the number of cases recording more than 70 deaths per day. By the end of the week, Spain took over. Just today, we learned that China and Hong Kong are facing a second onslaught of COVID-19, mostly from imported new cases. Globally, more than 200,000 cases and 10,254 deaths have been recorded.

Both my mother and one of my uncles served as census takers in 1950. I remember hearing them talk about the fact that a few people they interviewed were reluctant to give the government information about themselves. To help reach immigrants and minorities this year, the census is providing materials available in 59 non-English languages and making explicit in outreach materials that respondents' answers can't be used against them.

There have been several documentaries about country music, however none covering three quarters of a century like Country Music, a film by Ken Burns. Ken uses old video footage and actual photographs to paint a picture of the history of country music from the 1920s to the mid 1990s unlike any ever done before. It took over eight years to produce and more than 80 country music artists were interviewed in the making of this documentary.

Just to clarify, my wife and I have not been tested for COVID-19 and have no symptoms. However, I was in close proximity to a person who was exposed, so we are taking reasonable precautionary measures until that person's test results come back.