Archer County Advocate (Holliday, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 2007 Page: 5 of 20
twenty pages : ill. ; page 14 x 12 in. Scanned from physical pages.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Archer County Advocate
Fate Is Like The Weather
By Durhl Caussey
Excited rain clouds raced
in from the Gulf Coast and mar-
ried with fierce cold winds from
the north. Temperatures dropped
from the high 90s to the mid 70s
in the day to 50s at night.
Misguided birds that ear-
lier in the season had separated
or paired with their mates, now
flock back together for warmth
and conjugal security.
This season’s weather has
teased us with a misguided com-
pass. Front yard pansies and
climbing roses hunkered down
to ride the sharp winds playing
peek-a-boo around the comers of
the house.
Spring has sent us misdi-
rection. Frigid winds haunted
with updrafts seem to sneeze
from troubled clouds that bring
cold feeling thunder and arctic
lightening. Rain pours in buck-
eyes from house roofs and adja-
cent shrubbery.
But, rather than complain
about slick roadways and mud
puddles, I embrace this weather
respite with machismo enthusi-
asm, realizing how much the
weather is really like life. Sun-
shine one day and rain and
gloom the next. Blistering heat
for months followed by fall’s rich
colors and a heavy frost that
blankets the landscape clear to
the tip of the pumpkin—life’s
happiness being that tip.
Ancient philosophers and
poets measured the human life
with the record stick of the sea-
sons. Spring was the birth month
and winter the period of one’s
The City of Wichita Falls
Parks aiud Recreation Depart-
ment, in conjunction with the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Depart-
ment and Hook Line and Sinker
will be hosting a Kids’ Fishing
Rodeo on Saturday March 3,
2007 from 10a.m. until 12 noon
at Plum Lake, next to the Wichita
Falls Softball Complex at 1702
Sheppard Access Road. The
event is for kids 16 and under
with prizes awarded in 3 age di-
visions: 2-7; 8-11; and 12-16.
demise. The weather was the
barometer that measured con-
flicts with this growth pattern.
Life can be stormy with every-
thing going wrong and our tat-
tered stamina on the verge of col-
lapsing. Aegean blue skies
sprinkled with only occasional
puffs of clouds is the course of
fate that mortals have hoped to
trod over the near score of mil-
lenniums that we have been a
thinking and recording creature.
With its particular pauses
of unpredictability, I guess that
is why I like Texas weather. And
I would prefer a little variety in
my life, though it may occasion-
ally be permeated in failure and
borderline unhappiness. I favor
this as opposed to a bland diet of
predictability from the same old
ledger of nothingness. Not that
I support tragedy or bruising cir-
cumstances, but rather a degree
of variable spices that come with
life’s changes and misdirection.
A warm Indian spring day in
early January or an unspecting
cool front that minimizes miti-
gating hot temperature in August
is always refreshing with prayer-
ful praises heralded to the saints.
Years ago, I owned an in-
terest in some Burger King res-
taurants. Each summer the fam-
ily made a pilgrimage to Miami,
Florida where the corporate
headquarters was located. The
whole week we were there the
weather remained the same.
Moderate temperature with a
little shower in the afternoon was
Categories will be 1st, 2nd and 3rd
for smallest and largest Trout; 1st
and 2nd for smallest and largest
fish other than Trout. Judging
will be based on length rather
than weight. Participants should
bring their own fishing poles and
bait, however, a limited number
of poles will be available to bor-
row from Texas Parks and Wild-
life by calling 766-2383 to re-
serve one. For more information,
call Parks and Rec. at 761-7490.
the daily feature. After about a
week, it took great strength not
to want to throw myself in front
of a fast moving truck on
Biscayne Blvd. Give me my
Texas weather and a life that may
press you with misfortune and
failure, but at least it is not al-
ways the same.
Change brings possibility
and despair brings visions for
hope. Give me the smells of a
past heavy rainfall, and the lone-
some winds that haunt night
dreams in the blustery month of
April. Let me enjoy the north-
west winds that have been sling-
shot from the proverbial lone
barbwire fence near Lubbock and
Amarillo toward North Central
Texas. Let me fall and look
within myself to rise and again
approach a difficult task. Allow
me to fail in order to appreciate
what I still have. Prepare me for
the sizzling summer by recalling
the fragrances that drift on early
spring winds.
Please hold my hand when
I lose someone important, to re-
mind me that we will all meet
again someday. Help me to re-
member that the same moon that
falls across my brow rests gently
on my love’s shoulders, as the
breeze in the meadow helps us
all to sleep.
Durhl Caussey is a syndi-
cated writer who can be reached
at this newspaper or fax # 972-
709-6989 or
dcaussey @ sbcglobal.net.
Birth announcements
are welcome.
Please send, fax or email your
information to:
The Archer Advocate
P.O. Box 444
Holliday, TX 76366
940-586-0790 Fax 586-0826
news @ archeradvocate.com
Kids’ Fishing Rodeo
Thursday, March 1, 2007 5
Financial Focus
Grady R. Schenk, Jr.
New Pension Rules Benefit 401(k)
Beneficiaries
As you’re probably aware,
the traditional pension plan has
not fared so well in recent years.
In fact, many large companies
have frozen or discontinued their
plans. Congress passed laws last
year to strengthen pensions, but
some other provisions of this leg-
islation may interest you even if
you don’t have a pension - espe-
cially if you may be coming into
an inheritance that includes a
401(k). And a 401 (k) can be a
sizable bequest. By the time
many people retire, their 401(k)
or other employer-sponsored re-
tirement plan - such as a 403(b)
or 457(b) - may be their biggest
single financial asset. Even if
they died before depleting the
funds in their 401(k) or other
plan, they might still have a large
chunk of money to pass on. It’s
never been much of a problem
to leave this money to a spouse,
who could roll the funds into an
IRA. Once the money was in this
IRA, the surviving spouse could
continue enjoying the benefits of
tax-deferred growth. However,
non-spouse beneficiaries - such
as children, grandchildren, sib-
lings and domestic partners - did
not have this luxury. When these
beneficiaries inherited a 401(k)
or other retirement plan, they
were generally forced to take the
entire balance within five years
of the account owner’s death -
and some plans required them to
take the payout as a lump sum
within one year. These acceler-
ated payments were likely to cre-
ate what is euphemistically
called a “taxable event.” In plain
English, this means that if you
were a non-spouse beneficiary,
you were likely to take a big tax
hit after you inherited the 401(k)
or other retirement plan. Now,
however, things have changed,
thanks to the new pension laws.
Effective Jan. 1 of this year, if
you are a non-spouse beneficiary,
you can transfer an inherited
401(k) or other retirement plan
into an IRA. And that means you
can “stretch out” distributions
and taxes over your lifetime,
rather than being forced to take
withdrawals immediately or over
a period of a few years. By
stretching this inherited account,
you can continue to enjoy tax-
deferred growth, which can cre-
ate a significantly greater
amount of income over your life-
time. Clearly, this can be a huge
advantage to you. But you need
to make sure you’re following the
correct procedure. In “legalese,”
you have to make what’s known
as a trustee-to-trustee transfer by
establishing an “inherited” IRA
and have the check from the
401(k) or other plan made pay-
able to the trustee or custodian
of this IRA. Once this account is
established, you can’t contribute
anything more to it or roll the
money into any other IRA you
might have. Your financial ad-
visor can help you set up the in-
herited IRA and invest the dis-
tributions from the 401(k) or
other plan to help you meet your
financial goals in a way that is
appropriate for your individual
risk tolerance. You may also
want to consult with your tax
advisor before transferring funds
from the retirement plan to the
IRA. In any case, once you learn
that you are going to inherit a
401(k) or other retirement plan,
start doing your homework right
away. If managed correctly, this
type of inheritance can make a
big difference in your life - so
make the most of your opportu-
nity.
I Don’t Forget!
!
Submissions
Deadline
is Monday’s
by 4:00 pm
■news @ archeradvocate.com ■
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Stevens, Charlotte. Archer County Advocate (Holliday, Tex.), Vol. 4, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 1, 2007, newspaper, March 1, 2007; Holliday, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth829199/m1/5/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Archer Public Library.