Opinion

Even though there have been some bumps along the way, the oil and gas industry in Texas has been on a slow, methodical road to recovery during 2017. The pace of that recovery gained some considerable momentum in the second quarter of the year. 

The Texas Petro Index (TPI) has increased every month since November’s low of 147.5 to 172.5 for the June TPI, which was released this week. That’s a 17 percent increase with almost all categories showing impressive year-over-year gains. 

Decades before women would have career options beyond the classroom, secretarial pool or hospital nursing station, Bess Kennedy proved that a Texas woman can do just about anything she has a mind to.

In the 1930s, Kennedy made her living trapping, trailing and killing mountain lions in South Texas. Along with the big cats, she worked to eliminate coyotes and other predators from the brush country. While she was a diminutive woman, properly placed and baited traps or high powered rifle rounds know no gender.

Last week I came to the sad realization that I am old. If I hadn’t come to that conclusion by myself, I could have asked my two granddaughters. I didn’t have to ask. They volunteered that information several times during the five days that we were together on our journey to Grandparent Camp in the hill country of Texas. 

If you were driving recently in picturesque Palo Duro Canyon, don’t think the high elevation was getting to you, hallucination had begun or that your eyes were in trick mode.

Pshaw, it really may have been a 103-year-old man zooming down the zipline. More specifically, it may have been Elvin Howell from the Carillon LifeCare Community in Lubbock.

Just a few years ago there was a debate over energy policy that included the phrase “drill, baby, drill.”  The belief was that if drilling for oil in the U.S. increases so would oil production and gasoline prices would decline.

President Obama, however, did not believe that more drilling and production of oil would have any impact on the price of gasoline.  He said that proponents of “drill, baby, drill” could not achieve the goal of driving down gasoline prices to $2.

Unlike many workers today, when for corporate up and comers three to five years is considered a long time to stay with one company, Richard Adams apparently did not exert any effort whatsoever looking for a better job.

Better known to his co-workers with the International and Great Northern Railroad as “Uncle Dick,” Adams hired on with the company in 1871 when it was still just the Great Northern. Fifty-five years later -- yes, a half-century plus five -- he still worked for the same line.

Many thanks to our Jack County Volunteer Fire Department, dozer operator and Jack County Precinct 3 for their quick response to the fire on Birdwell Road.

Jack County is very lucky to have such caring and dedicated people.

Raymond Matlock

I guess when King Tut’s buddies were trying to chisel out a few complete sentences on the walls of that pyramid back in the day, they would have been really irritated to have left their last blade on the barge. Likewise, the guys scratching out the Mayflower Compact would have had problems if they had left their quills back in Portsmouth. What if the founding Fathers had forgotten to order the parchment?

I take no joy in alleging the shortcomings of others. On land or sea, I typically choose “fluffy” topics devoid of controversy. My intent is to provide gentle humor for all readers, despite their station, religion and/or political leaning.

On land, I wouldn’t join troops risking entanglements “through the briars and the brambles where a rabbit wouldn’t go.” On the sea, while others joust with the bad guys and/or creatures of the deep, I’m “scrunched down,” trying to strap on two life jackets.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is getting a first-class education in the law of supply and demand, i.e. when supply outstrips demand prices decline.

It has been a painful lesson. And it is not over.

In November 2014, OPEC member countries decided not to cut production even though there was clearly an oversupply of crude oil on the market. Prices dropped from almost $100 to $25 in a little over 12 months.