Thumbs column

January 2017 is moving rapidly onward toward February and no doubt Hot Springs and Garland County citizens are focusing on their recently made resolutions.

This writer hopes that among the many promises people made to themselves at the beginning of the new year, there is one to add new words or expressions to their vocabularies. It's really a lot of fun and can make for scintillating conversations with friends and associates.

Meanwhile, here are some up-and-down digits to share with our readers.

The first "Thumbs-up" comes from The Sentinel-Record's Steven Mross who forwarded the information after a telephone call from a local resident who is legally blind and could not write out her comments.

The woman said that on a recent Sunday, her friend, Margaret Gibson, was coming to take her to church when she saw a small dog whose leash or chain had become entangled in some briers in a gutter on Richard Street. She noted that the Chihuahua was obviously quite cold, since that morning's temperature was about 15 or 16 degrees.

Gibson quickly rescued the dog and warmed him up under her coat before taking him to her friend's house and then on to her own home, ultimately calling around to people in the neighborhood and posting the dog's predicament on Facebook. As it turned out, the dog's owners were looking for Gizmo, who had run off when one of them, an invalid, had opened the front door of their house.

Thanks to the efforts of the two women in spreading the word about the lost pet, Gizmo was reunited with his grateful owners, who offered Gibson a reward, but she refused.

By the same token, Kay Ekey of Hot Springs wants to recognize a good deed and the thoughtfulness of a neighbor.

Via email, she wrote, "Ted Harps is the best neighbor in the world and deserving of a 'Thumbs-up.' Over the past 25-plus years, he has cheerfully performed many handyman chores for me, often without being asked.

"He most recently came to my rescue on a cold morning when I awoke to the most unpleasant reality of frozen pipes. Into the crawl space he went to place a space heater. Then he rigged a hairdryer to warm an underground valve box where the water pipe enters the house. Within a couple of hours, the pipes were thawed.

"Thanks, Teddy, for always being there."

Here is a "Thumbs-up" to the members of Piney Grove United Methodist Church for donating "buddy benches" to Lake Hamilton Primary School and Lake Hamilton Elementary School.

The benches, aimed at eliminating loneliness and helping foster and grow relationships between classmates, are being placed on the schools' playgrounds.

Having buddies in the primary and elementary school grades is especially important to building confidence and self-esteem.

Personally speaking, geography was always one of my hardest school subjects and it would be even more so today with the ever-changing world globe.

Thus a tip of the hat and a "Thumbs-up" to three students who took home top prizes at the Fountain Lake Middle School Cobra Digital Prep Academy's geography bee.

Congratulations to Ezariah Collins, first place; Cody Freeman, second place; and Caleb Lacy, third place.

Finally, a Hot Springs TV aficionado sends out a "Thumbs-up" to Resort Television Cable for adding the Hallmark Movies and Mysteries Channel to its standard lineup. She added, "In this household, we love mysteries and it's nice to have some good old-fashioned ones with storylines that don't feature psychos, terrorists, torturers and the like, along with lots of blood, gore and mutilated bodies.

"I also want to thank a Resort tech named Jeremy, who recently came to the house and helped with a Wi-Fi issue we were having."

The Thumbs Column appears in The Sentinel-Record the first and third Wednesday of each month. The newspaper welcomes readers' comments and suggestions, which should be submitted in writing with a name, telephone number and address for verification.