LIVE FROM TEXAS

In a bit of a first, Monkey Trials now comes to you direct from the Lone Star State. We're having a bit of a family gathering at my folks' place in Arlington. My aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides are with us along with my brother and his wife following the funeral and gravesite service for my grandmother.

I took the time while I was at the cemetery in Cleburne to also visit the grave site of my father's parents (Charles and Virginia Hatfield). This marks the end of a stage in our family's history. With all of my grandparents having shuffled off this mortal coil, and with my Mom and Dad in Arlington, there will probably be no desire to ever return to Cleburne, Texas. Unless one of us grows pathologically nostalgic, which seems doubtful.

We now face a future that is no less uncertain than before in other matters.