(Photo Illustration - MetroCreativeConnection - Editor's Notes by Christina Myer)

Happy West Virginia Day, happy Juneteenth, happy Father’s Day, welcome to the start of summer … it’s a lot to cram into one weekend. You’d think a column writer would be able to land on one topic, wouldn’t you?

You would be wrong, about this writer, anyway.

In fact, it’s tempting to veer entirely into talking about the joys of adopting an animal from a local shelter, given our special pages and news stories recently. But you all know my views on that.

Shelter pets are the best. But do not adopt one on a whim. Two of my three are old enough now to be experiencing new challenges. (Have you ever seen a geriatric cat forget what he was doing in the middle of eating from his dish, and have to be picked up and put back in front of that dish to continue eating?)

There may be years-long stretches when the vet bills amount to nothing more than annual checkups and routine shots. Then there will be stretches where there is special food and medicine and more frequent visits to the vet. It’s not cheap, but giving these animals the care they deserve is worth every penny.

Be prepared for the whole run.

Speaking of dogs, I had a reader ask the other day if I had a follow-up on Waffles, the dog who was found back in March sealed into a basement, who had been rescued by the Kanawha-Charleston Humane Association. Ma’am, I’m trying to find out, but haven’t had any luck getting a response. However, given how busy our own local shelter staffs are, that’s not much of a surprise. I’ll keep trying.

That reader knew my dad, by the way.

Father’s Day is odd now. Though there are moments in which — STILL, more than five years later — I accidentally think “I should ask Dad about this?” or “Dad would love this,” I am incredibly fortunate to carry so much of what he taught me and be able to fall back on it. Frequently.

He would have gotten a kick out of social media posts showing WVU fans beating other schools by tens of thousands of Jell-O shots at the Rocco’s Challenge to raise money for food banks in and around Omaha. Top that with the story of World Cup fans from Scotland drinking Boston dry of beer, and he would have chuckled before leading into a spiel that somehow combined tales of him and his buddies in college AND our family’s Scots-Irish ancestors.

But try explaining to a friend who is telling you about a Scotsman’s drinking kilt for the World Cup trip why you are suddenly blinking back tears.

I’ll say it again, though. Man, I got lucky.

He’d have plenty to say, I’m guessing, about Juneteenth, wishing more Americans actually delved into history beyond what they were taught in schools, that it is possible to both love West Virginia and wish it was easier to always be proud of her, and what being a “patriot” really means.

And he’d be planning which weekends he’d be able to get into the woods and hike this summer.

In the woods, it’s OK if you start out with a zillion things running through your mind. Eventually you land on an inner monologue something more like “Don’t trip on the rock. I wonder what kind of tree that is. The sky is really blue today. Ooh! Look at that waterfall!” It’s great.

So forgive me if I’m rambling. It’s been a while since I got in a good long reset walk.

But it’s the right time of year. We’ve got a lot to celebrate and a lot to look forward to. Happy everything, everybody!

Christina Myer is executive editor of The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. She can be reached via e-mail at cmyer@newsandsentinel.com.