You readers may have noticed that I didn’t have a column in this space last week. Well, I do have a good reason for my failure.

I forgot. Really, I forgot.

This forgetfulness wasn’t due to age or infirmity; quite the opposite, it was caused by a considerable reduction in the average age under our roof and an increase in robust health. It gave my bride and I a good dose of Elixir of Grandkids, increasing our energy and chasing away any sort of depression we might have been harboring.

The week also produced our first trip of the year into the Big Horn Mountains, with a stop to see the dinosaur tracks east of Greybull on the way.

The little creek that runs through the Trapper Creek Campground provided the simple pleasures of watching the path taken by pine cones launched a few yards upstream and Shell Falls provided a short hike and a bit of knowledge of geology.

The only disappointment of the day was the heat that kept the hummingbirds who usually frequent the Shell Falls area from making an appearance.

Other days provided a Hot Springs State Park swim and a Cody Stampede parade, and the last night made time for some picture-taking, bubble-blowing and croquet in the back yard. Whacking at croquet balls was enjoyable for this grandpa as well as for the grandma, who subbed in for grandpa and played the last three wickets while he rested his aching back. The fact that we combined to finish last didn’t spoil the fun at all.

All that fun crowded a column completely out of the picture.

Even so, my habit of keeping an eye open for something to write about didn’t desert me, and my subconscious self managed to pick up a couple items worthy of comment.

For example, the parade of people nominating themselves to be the next president has, I believe, become longer than the parade we saw in Cody, and I’m rather put out by that.

I was hoping the 2016 election campaign would wait to start a bit later, like maybe until 2016 actually arrives. That’s not to be, but I hope we can at least get a break in the fall, when the football season and the baseball pennant races clog up the calendar.

The politicians probably won’t quit talking, but maybe debates over whether the Cardinals can get by the Giants this year and Peyton Manning can finally get Denver another Super Bowl title will drown them out.

Despite my distaste for this early start, I have a responsibility as a columnist to comment on campaign issues, which, this week, seem to be Supreme Court decisions on the Affordable Care Act and the right of same-sex couples to marry.

The only comment that comes to mind, though, is that, for a bunch of people who supposedly revere the Constitution, they seemed awfully anxious to change it by making changes to the Supreme Court. One guy even thinks we should abolish it. Moreover, these same candidates are vociferous in denouncing government for abridging our freedoms, but in this case are complaining because the Court won’t let state governments continue to abridge the freedom of selected couples to file joint tax returns.

To paraphrase an old sports adage, “You can tell the winners from the losers, because the losers are the ones complaining about the judges.”

None of the politicians said much about terrorism last week, but I learned that we probably should worry less about Islamic terrorists and more about people like the young man who killed nine members of a prayer meeting in hopes of enticing others to follow his example. According to New America, a non-partisan research organization, in the years since the 9/11 terrorism, Muslims have carried out seven lethal attacks in the U.S., killing 26 people in the name of their religion. Meanwhile, racist groups, anti-government groups and groups that reject any legal authority at all have carried out 19 attacks, killing 48 people. In addition to the nine at prayer, the dead include six Sikhs in a Michigan temple and a variety of police officers and innocent bystanders. There were also some close calls, such as the Texas man who fired 100 shots at a police station without killing anybody.

Given those and other incidents, it isn’t surprising that when researchers from the University of North Carolina and Duke University asked 382 police and sheriff’s offices around the country to list the three biggest threats from extremists, 74 percent listed anti-government groups while only 39 percent listed threats motivated by Al Qaida.

But the government hasn’t studied the potential for violence by white supremacist and anti-government groups, at least partly because Congressional Republicans have blocked it, and I wonder if that will be an issue when the Republican candidates debate each other.

Now, granted, the number of people killed by terrorists isn’t that big. We killed more people on the highways last week than terrorists of all kinds have killed since 9/11 — so terrorism isn’t a big problem in terms of casualties.

It is, however, a bigger problem than same-sex couples marrying.

Well, so long till next time, and I promise I won’t forget to write next week, unless, of course, grandchildren are involved.